Successful restart: From 31 May to 1 June 2022, Chemspec Europe attracted 5,122 industry experts from 57 countries, of which 3,162 were trade visitors. A total of 287 exhibitors from 26 countries presented their product portfolio on a net exhibition space of 5,300 m2 at Messe Frankfurt, Germany. With topics such as sustainable innovations, regulatory compliances, circular bio-economy, green chemistry, digitalisation, and the flourishing startup scene, the 35th International Exhibition for Fine and Speciality Chemicals highlighted insights of current and future developments within the industry.

The South Wales-based demonstration plant "VAMOS" that generates industrial biotechnology sugars and other recycled material streams from the paper and card in mixed household waste has come online these days. The products will be used in the production of several high-performance bio-based materials.

The International Vaccine Institute, IVI, which is associated with the WHO and UN, will locate its European office in Stockholm. To date, the institute is only located in the host country of South Korea.

The financing (around €19m) shall fully fund the commencement of a potentially pivotal/registrational Phase 2/3 study for KL1333 and its progression to the outcome of a key interim analysis.

Transine Therapeutics Ltd has added £4.6m from lead investor Epidarex Capital and the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) to its £9.1m seed funding led by Takeda Ventures and DDF. 

Amidst the rapid evolution of DNA sequencing technologies in past years, the industry has been working tirelessly to make genomics more accessible. Since the Human Genome Project, which saw scientists from six countries coming together to map the first human genome at nearly $3 billion over 13 years, the cost of whole-genome sequencing has fallen to less than $1,000 today. Yet, the quest to produce larger amounts of short- and long-read data in a shorter span of time and at an even lower cost continues.