Our strategy in action

In Europe, diesel cars have received a lot of bad press because of the impact of their emissions on urban air quality compared with their petrol counterparts.

But for some people, those who drive a lot of miles, the higher fuel economy of diesel makes diesel powered cars cheaper, over the long term, to run. Higher fuel economy means CO₂ emissions from a diesel car are lower too. So the incentive was there to clean up diesel and give consumers a viable choice that was better for their health, the planet and their pocket.

Regulators, quite rightly, also responded and set tighter emission limits to protect our health. Meeting these posed a technical challenge… exactly the sort of thing that JM loves best!

JM has applied its science and successfully reduced NOx emissions by a further 50%. In doing so, we have developed the most advanced catalyst system for diesel vehicles yet. Auto makers agree and have made it their number one choice. As a result, JM’s market position has increased by some 20 percentage points, to around 65%.

This all means a new diesel car in 2019 can run just as clean as its petrol equivalent. So consumers no longer need to choose between economics and the environment.

Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology isn't new. First developed in Germany in the early 20th century, it was used to convert synthesis gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen) into hydrocarbons. Many decades later and JM has joined forces with fellow British long server, BP, to demonstrate FT technology at a plant in Alaska. 

But with fluctuating economics for oil and greater impetus for more sustainable technologies and circular thinking, JM and BP saw a new application for FT technology… converting everyday household waste into high grade aviation fuel.

Together we have brought to market a process to do just that. At its heart is novel reactor technology and a high activity catalyst which ensures that turning waste into jet fuel is not only good for the environment, it’s economically attractive too. The new process is three times more productive than traditional technology and requires only half the capital expenditure.

And that’s why Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc. has licensed it and is building the first commercial scale plant in Sierra Nevada, USA due to start production in early 2020. It will convert around 175,000 tonnes of household waste into some 11 million gallons of fuel each year; enough for more than 180 return flights between London and New York.

Unique expertise in the development, scale up and manufacture of complex molecules is what JM brings to both innovator and generic pharmaceutical customers in the attractive and growing small molecule API segment.

And that’s why Immunomedics has chosen JM as its strategic manufacturing partner for the large scale production of the drug linker used in IMMU-32. IMMU-32 is Immunomedics’ breakthrough therapy for metastatic triple negative breast cancer. It's classified as an antibody drug conjugate (ADC), so unlike typical chemotherapy, it's intended to target and kill only cancer cells and spare the body’s healthy cells. This significantly cuts down on side effects experienced by patients.

JM’s role in getting this breakthrough treatment to patients will be to manufacture the drug linker used in the IMMU-132 ADC. Linkers are a critical component of ADCs, providing the bridge for the antibody to selectively deliver the drug to tumour cells and at tumour sites. This significantly reduces the amount of the drug that enters the body.

Thanks to JM’s early R&D work, we have already improved the productivity of the manufacturing process over 20-fold and have provided the necessary quantities of API to treat patients in clinical trials.

The IMMU-132 treatment is at the forefront of new cancer therapies and with one woman losing the battle against this devastating disease every single day, JM is excited to be contributing our science and technology through this partnership.

Battery technology is going through a period of transformation, and this change is bringing a future in which EVs are the norm, closer every day.

At JM we asked ourselves what it would take to develop a cathode material that would support a lithium-ion battery to enable electric vehicle usage on a grand scale. We looked at a number of strategic factors that are crucial to the success of electric vehicles – total cost of ownership, driving range, safety, acceleration, recharging – and developed our new cathode material, eLNO^®, with these consumer priorities in mind.

But for EV adoption to really take off, consumers – unsurprisingly – want to pay the same price as they do for a regular vehicle, or close to it, and they want to have the same refuelling costs, whether their vehicle uses petrol, diesel, or electricity. Achieving this is a key differentiator with JM’s eLNO, which has an ultra high energy density compared with both current materials, and our competitors’ next generation materials.

And we’re pressing ahead with scaling up of this transformative product at our pilot facility in the North East of England. We’re also investing in a 10,000 metric tonnes commercial scale facility in Poland (with potential to expand to 100,000 metric tonnes), with the plant due to come online in 2021/22, and we expect to have our material powering EV platforms soon after.

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