Business Concentrates LITIGATION LATIN AMERICA
▸ Braskem on the hook for $1 billion
Merck wins patent case against Gilead A jury in U.S. District Court in Delaware has ordered Gilead Sciences to pay Merck & Co. $2.54 billion in damages because its hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni infringe on a Merck patent. The patent was originally awarded to Idenix Pharmaceuticals, which Merck acquired in 2014. The amount of the award is 10% of the drugs’ sales through August 2016. An active ingredient in both drugs is sofosbuvir, which Gilead obtained as part of its acquisition of the biotech firm Pharmasset in 2011. The dispute centers on whether Pharmasset derived sofosbuvir from an Idenix patent or whether it developed the compound itself. Gilead says it will appeal. The two drug companies sparred in a previous lawsuit in California, where a federal jury awarded Merck $200 million earlier this year. The award was overturned in June after allegations surfaced that a Merck attorney had lied under oath. Merck is contesting the overturned verdict.—RICK MULLIN
Braskem has agreed to pay almost $1 billion to U.S., Brazilian, and Swiss authorities in connection with Brazil’s massive “Car Wash” corruption investigation. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission accused the Brazilian chemical company of paying bribes to Brazilian government officials, including at least one executive at Petrobras, the state oil company that owns 36% of Braskem. In exchange for the bribes, Braskem allegedly received naphtha feedstock from Petrobras on advantageous terms and preferential tax legislation. In connection with the same corruption investigation, Odebrecht, a conglomerate that controls Braskem, must pay between $2.6 billion and $4.5 billion.—ALEX TULLO
Plus, but U.S. antitrust authorities blocked the deal.—ALEX TULLO
AGRICULTURE
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
▸ Mosaic to acquire Brazilian fertilizers
▸ ITC finds for BASF on battery materials
The fertilizer maker Mosaic has agreed to buy Vale Fertilizantes from Brazilian mining company Vale for $2.5 billion. The deal lands Mosaic 4.8 million metric tons of phosphate crop nutrient and 500,000 metric tons of potash capacity annually. Most of the assets are in Brazil. Vale bought much of the business it is selling six years ago in a $3.8 billion transaction with the U.S. agribusiness firm Bunge.—ALEX TULLO
The International Trade Commission has determined that Belgian materials firm Umicore infringed on BASF and Argonne National Laboratory patents covering nickel-manganese-cobalt battery cathode
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ Lygos gets funding for malonic acid Biobased chemical start-up Lygos has raised $13 million in a first round of venture funding. Using O O synthetic biology methods, Lygos develHO OH oped yeast strains that Malonic acid produce malonic acid, an intermediate used in flavors, fragrances, and pharmaceuticals that is currently made with a cyanide-based route. The company says it is producing sample quantities of bio-malonic acid. It will use the funds to scale up output to ton quantities and expand its workforce.—MELODY
BOMGARDNER
INORGANIC CHEMICALS
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
In a merger of two large Canadian inorganic chemical firms, Chemtrade Logistics has agreed to purchase Canexus for $680 million. Chemtrade had sales of more than $1 billion in 2015. It is one of North America’s largest producers of sulfuric acid and also makes sodium nitrate, sodium chlorate, and potassium chloride. Canexus, which had sales last year of about $425 million, is a major producer of sodium chlorate and also makes chlorine and caustic soda. In 2015, Canexus agreed to be purchased by another Canadian firm, Superior
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JANUARY 2, 2017
BASF precipitates spheres out of nickel, cobalt, and manganese salts as the first step in a process to make cathode materials. Each sphere is 10 µm in diameter.
materials. Umicore had continued selling the materials to its battery customers after an earlier ITC ruling in February. A further ruling by a U.S. district court will be required to block imports of the materials. Umicore disputes the findings, saying it intends to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
▸ Wacker steps up cysteine presence Wacker Chemie has struck a deal to acquire a large-scale fermentation plant in Spain from Antibióticos de León. Wacker says it will spend about $30 million to modernize the facility in anticipation of using it to produce the amino acid cysteine for use in food and pharmaceutical markets. Wacker calls itself the first company to produce cysteine via fermentation. Other manufacturers extract it from human or animal hair, feathers, or pig bristles.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
CREDIT: BASF
▸ Chemtrade will buy rival Canexus
BIOLOGICS
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ Asahi Glass to buy CMC Biologics
▸ Novartis picks up NASH drug
Japan’s Asahi Glass has agreed to acquire CMC Biologics, a contract manufacturer of biologic drugs, for $510 million. The purchase continues the glass and chemical maker’s push into biologic drug manufacturing. In August, Asahi announced plans to buy the German contract manufacturer Biomeva. Private equity-owned CMC operates plants in Copenhagen, Seattle, and Berkeley, Calif., that produce biologic drug ingredients in mammalian and microbial hosts. It has about 530 employees.—MICHAEL MCCOY
Novartis will pay $50 million up front for access to Conatus’ pan-caspase inhibitor emricasan, a small molecule in Phase II studies to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The deal adds another drug for the fatty liver disease to Novartis’ portfolio, which already includes an FXR agonist in Phase II trials. The companies will split the costs of a Phase IIb study of emricasan; if successful, Novartis will test it in combination with an FXR agonist. As new drugs offer cures for people with hepatitis C, NASH is forecast to become the leading cause of liver transplants by 2020.—LISA JARVIS
ing small molecules against patient-derived cells will increase the chances of finding drug candidates.—LISA JARVIS
INSTRUMENTATION
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
▸ FIS nabs nearby Zach System plant
▸ Celgene, Evotec sign discovery pact Celgene will pay Evotec $45 million up front as part of a broad pact to develop drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. In conjunction with Harvard University, Evotec has developed a drug screening platform based on induced pluripotent stem cells. The partners hope that screen-
Business Roundup
CREDIT: BRUKER
▸ Honeywell International is suing Illinois-based MEK Chemical seeking royalties and monetary damages from sales of HFC-245fa, a polyurethane foam blowing agent. Honeywell contends that MEK is importing a product from China that violates Honeywell’s production patent. ▸ Eastman Chemical has li-
Bruker Corp. has acquired Active Spectrum, an 11-year-old maker of benchtop microelectron spin resonance spectros-
NEUROSCIENCE
Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici (FIS), an Italian contract manufacturer of pharmaceutical chemicals, has acquired the Lonigo, Italy, plant of Zach System, the fine chemicals division of the Italian drugmaker Zambon. FIS has secured a supply agreement with Zambon. The plant, which is 15 km from FIS’s headquarters site in Vicenza, has 320 employees, bringing FIS’s staff to about 1,700. Separately, FIS hopes to open a quality control lab in 2018 that will host 120 employees.—RICK MULLIN
▸ Afton Chemical, a lube and fuel additives subsidiary of NewMarket Corp., has agreed to buy Aditivos Mexicanos for $183 million. The Mexico City-based firm also makes lube and fuel additives.
▸ Bruker buys microspectroscopy firm
censed rights to a nematicide developed by Eden, a U.K.based provider of terpenes for agricultural use. Eastman, which already makes metam-based nematicides, will pay an up-front fee and make annual milestone payments until sales of the product, called Cedroz, begin in 2019. ▸ ES FiberVisions, a joint venture between Indorama Ventures and Japan’s JNC, plans to expand production of polyolefin bicomponent fiber in Covington, Ga., and Jiangsu Province, China. In December, ES completed a 14,000-metric-ton-per-year
Active Spectrum’s benchtop micro-ESR system. copy systems used for chemistry research, teaching, and in-line analysis of lubricants and beverages. Bruker says the acquisition will give it a platform to develop additional products for industrial and applied markets using compact magnetic resonance technology.—MARC REISCH
fiber plant in Rayong, Thailand. Bicomponent fiber is used to make diaper cover stock and wet wipes.
tion sequencing capabilities.
▸ BioAmber is forming a joint venture with South Korea’s CJ CheilJedang to produce biobased succinic acid in China. The venture intends to produce up to 36,000 metric tons of the intermediate per year at an existing fermentation facility. ▸ Agilent Technologies has signed an agreement to acquire Multiplicom, a Belgium-based genetic testing company, for $71 million. Agilent says the acquisition will enhance its diagnostics and next-genera-
▸ Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay $50 million up front for worldwide rights to PsiOxus Therapeutics’ NG-348, an oncolytic virus that addresses solid tumors. Oncolytic viruses selectively replicate in tumor cells, stimulating an inflammatory response against the cells. ▸ Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has spun off Microbiotica, a new company that seeks to treat disease by harnessing the intestinal microbiome. The investment firms IP Group and Cambridge Innovation Capital are each investing about $5 million in Microbiotica.
JANUARY 2, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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