The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending September 10, 2021, closed at 5,463.16 for the 25 companies in the R&D World Index. The Index was down -2.39% (or -133.49 basis points) from the week ending September 3, 2021. The stock of four R&D World Index members gained value from 0.03% (Honda) to 1.37% (General Motors). The stock of 21 R&D World Index members lost value from -0.35% (Oracle) to -7.72% (Eli Lilly & Co.).
RDW Index member Intel announced last week that it intends to build new semiconductor chip-making facilities in Europe which will cost up to $95 billion. The company stated that two chip fabs initially would be built at a new European site which could be expanded further over the next decade. The new site could house up to eight chip-making plants. Intel said that the market for automotive-based chips will double over the next decade and will account for more than 20% of the material costs for new premium-segment vehicles. Intel’s self-driving subsidiary Mobileye is expected to begin a robotaxi pilot in Israel and Germany in 2022. The German pilot could be expanded to a ride-sharing service throughout Europe.
Helsinki-based technology company Wartsila announced last week that it is collaborating in a new Norwegian research consortium, LINCCS (Linking Carbon Capture and Storage), which is partially funded by the Norwegian government’s Green Platform Initiative. LINCCS is focused on reducing costs for new carbon capture storage (CCS) facilities by 70% and advancing the development of carbon capture technologies in various industry sectors. Wartsila will lead this development with support from Norway’s Sustainable Energy Catapult Center and SINTEF Energy. Wartsila is the largest supplier of industrial exhaust scrubbers and says that its expertise will help in leading the CCS project. Other companies pursuing CCS technologies include Japan’s Mitsubishi, Alfa Laval and ANDRITZ.
RDW Index member Toyota Motor Corp. last week announced that it will invest $9 billion over the next decade to build factories for electric vehicle (EV) batteries as it forecasts to sell up to two million EVs annually by 2030. The company said it planned to have 10 EV production lines globally by 2025 and 70 by 2030. The company said it wants up to 80% of its global production to have some battery power by 2030, most of which will still be its trademark hybrid vehicles (conventional internal combustion and electric). Hybrid EVs require a much smaller battery than a fully 100% EV. The company expects its battery output to total about 240 Gwh of electricity annually by 2030. The company is still in the process of developing the more advanced solid-state battery technologies.
A new study released at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (LASLC) last week noted that researchers are now having trouble recruiting volunteers for their lung cancer research due to the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment in lung cancer clinical trials fell by 43% in 2020, according to the study. These declines could lead to delays in experimental drug trials. The study noted that these effects could also impact research in HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, both in preventing and treating new cases. Remote monitoring technologies developed throughout the pandemic, however, are expected to alleviate some of these cancer-based clinical study issues.
Stockholm-headquartered networking and telecommunications company Ericsson announced last week that it was shutting down one of its five R&D centers in China. It will divest its Nanjing China R&D site by November and transfer 630 employees to Finnish software provider TietoEVRY, which agreed to hire the staff. Ericsson will continue to operate its 5G production plant in Nanjing. Ericsson suffered from the Sweden-China dispute after China’s Huawei was shut out of supplying 5G equipment in Sweden. Ericsson’s telecom market share in China has dropped from 10% to 3% during this dispute.
U.S.-based Footprint, a global materials science technology company, announced last week plans for a European R&D center to be based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Footprint was founded in 2014 by former Intel engineers. Its European R&D center will feature a prototype and test lab, research facility and the company’s hub for development of sustainable packaging solutions for European customers seeking to transition away from single-use plastics, which are now banned by EU regulations.
Lenovo, the largest manufacturer of personal computers with 24% market share, based in China announced last week that it will invest about $9 billion over the next three years in R&D to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) solutions services. The company said it will increase its AI development of systems to improve efficiency for manufacturers. Lenovo invested about $1.5 billion in R&D in its fiscal 2020 and will double that annually for the next three years. Lenovo’s AI-based Lenovo Brain is used internally to optimize its manufacturing and sales efficiencies. The company plans to offer the AI platform as a service to its customers.
UK-based Adaptimmune Therapeutics announced last week that it entered a strategic collaboration with U.S.-based Genentech to commercialize allogenic cell therapies to treat multiple oncology indications. The collaboration is expected to 1) develop allogenic T-cell therapies for up to five shared cancer targets and 2) develop personalized allogenic T-cell therapies. Adaptimmune will be responsible for developing the T-cell clinical candidates while Genentech be responsible for the input TCRs (T-cell receptors) and subsequent clinical development. Adaptimmune will receive an upfront payment of $150 million and additional $150 million payments over five years.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently unveiled its plan for revising its fee program for drugs and biologics. The new program is expected to collect more than $1 billion in annual fees to support changes in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). The FDA hopes to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA VII) in time for it to be operational by October 1, 2022 (the start of the government’s FY2023) and then run through FY2027 (September 30, 2027).
South Korea announced last week that it expects to expand its defense technology R&D by 76% to $1.28 billion in 2022 for new concept weapon systems. If approved by the Korean National Assembly, this will be the first time its defense technology R&D has received more than 1 trillion won in funding.
R&D World’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in R&D. The top 25 industrial R&D spenders in 2019 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2020 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (10 companies), automotive (6 companies) and ICT (9 companies) who invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D World’s 2021 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D World Index are tabulated from NASDAQ. NYSE and OTC common stock prices for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the online publication of the R&D World Index.