NEWS OF THE WEEK

Crawford

B U S I N E S S

INVESTORS SNAP UP HUNTSMAN'S IPO Rockwood files for own stock offering on day of Huntsman launch

S IGNALING CONTINUED

buoyancy in investors' view of the chemical industry,

Huntsman Corp. has launched a successful initial public of­fering of stock, and Rock­wood Specialties has filed documents for an IPO of its own.

At $23 per share, Hunts­man's IPO was priced at the high end of the $21 to $23 range the firm anticipated earlier (C&EN, Feb. 7, page 12).The company sold 60.2 million shares, more than

it had expected, and raised net pro­ceeds of $1.45 billion. Its shares closed at $24.50, up 6.5%, at the end of their first day of trading.

Huntsman's IPO contrasted sharply with that of Celanese in January That company, which like Huntsman is mainly a commodi­ty chemical maker, initially priced its stock at $19 to $21 per share but dropped the offering to just $16 after investors balked at the price. Celanese's shares barely moved in their first day of trading, closing at $16.02.

John E. Roberts, a chemical an-

PUBLICLY OWNED Huntsman makes the polyurethane intermediate propylene oxide in Port Neches, Texas.

alyst at Buckingham Research, says one big difference between the offerings is that Huntsman's proceeds went to pay down debt while Celanese's went to its own­er, the Blackstone Group. "Hunts­man is a stronger company for having gone public, while in the Celanese IPO only the pre-IPO owners benefited," he says.

Meanwhile, Rockwood Spe­cialties Group, the specialty chemical maker owned by Kohl-berg Kravis Roberts and DLJ Merchant Banking, has filed doc­uments with the Securities & Ex­change Commission to sell up to $500 million in common stock in its own IPO. Rockwood grew sub­stantially last year with the acqui­sition of four of Dynamit Nobel's chemical businesses.

Huntsman and Rockwood are joining Nalco Chemical and Westlake Chemical as newly pub­lic chemical companies. Still in the pipeline is BP's planned IPO of its olefins and derivatives busi­ness.—MICHAEL MCCOY

G O V E R N M E N T & P O L I C Y

FDA CREATES PANEL ON DRUG SAFETY New safety board is a step forward, but critics question its independence

FDA IS CREATING AN INDE-

pendent Drug Safety Over­sight Board to oversee man­

agement of drug safety issues. Creation of the board comes at a time when FDA is under intense pressure from Congress and the public to improve monitoring of drugs after approval.

'The public expects better and more prompt information about the medicines they take every day," said Acting FDA Commis­sioner Lester M. Crawford Jr., who has just been nominated to head the agency "Our goal is to prepare the agency for these new demands by improving the way

we monitor and respond to pos­sible adverse health consequences that may arise regarding drugs ap­proved for sale to US. consumers."

Board members will come mostly from within FDA and in­clude medical experts from oth­er government departments. The board will consult with outside experts and representatives from patient and consumer groups.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Finance Committee, worries about the new board's independence. He has been a vocal critic of current FDA drug evaluation boards' re­liance on industry

"A new drug safety board may contribute to oversight at FDA, but it remains necessary that the [existing} drug safety office with­in FDA be made truly independ­ent," Grassley says.

While the industry supports improvements in information quality, it is concerned that FDA is moving too fast. "It is important that regulatory decisions and com­munications be based on sound science and reflect carefully con­sidered judgment regarding ben­efit and risk," says Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the Pharmaceuti­cal Research & Manufacturers of America. "PhRMA will carefully study the initiatives and will re­spond to FDAs request for input."

Creation of the safety board came as FDA held a three-day public meeting before an inde­pendent panel to discuss the safe­ty of COX-2 inhibitor painkillers. That panel will make recom­mendations about the continued use of the drugs.—DAVID HANSON

10 C&EN / FEBRUARY 2 1 . 2005 H T T P : / / W W W . C E N - O N L I N E . O R G