FOOD INGREDIENTS
▸ Fire shuts down BASF vitamin output Because of a fire at the end of last month in a plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany making the feedstock citral, BASF is unable to supply customers with vitamins A and E and several carotenoids. The vitamin units were undergoing routine repairs and were unaffected by the fire. But the repair and restart of the fire-damaged citral plant will take “several weeks,” BASF says. Supplies of citral and isoprenol-based aroma ingredients will also be affected, the firm adds.—MARC REISCH
BIOTECHNOLOGY
C R E D I T: GR E E NTOWN LA BS ( LA B ) ; AV I STA ( R EACTO R ) ; DAV I D P LA KK E ME DI A N YC (R I B B O N CU T T I N G )
▸ Novartis expands gene-editing program A collaboration with Bedford, Mass.-based Homology Medicines will expand gene-editing research at Novartis. Homology’s gene-editing technique relies on recently discovered variants of adeno-associated viruses rather than on CRISPR. AAVs induce homologous recombination in a cell’s genome to swap out an old piece of DNA for a new one. The goal is to treat genetic blood and eye diseases. The financial terms are not disclosed, but Novartis previously invested in Homology as part
of the firm’s $83.5 million series B funding.—RYAN CROSS
NEUROSCIENCE
▸ Bill Gates invests in Alzheimer’s research Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has put $50 million into the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Gates told the news organization Reuters that he will also invest $50 million directly in start-ups researching Alzheimer’s. In his blog, Gates points to the finding that people have a nearly 50% chance of developing the disease if they live into their mid-80s.—MICHAEL MCCOY
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ Lilly spreads out in New York City Eli Lilly & Co. cut the ribbon last week on immuno-oncology labs for 40 researchers at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, a two-tower life sciences research facility on the East River in Manhattan. Lilly, the anchor tenant at the Alexandria Center, arrived in 2010 and added a second bank of labs in 2015 focused on immune-system oncology. Jan M. Lundberg, president of Lilly
Business Roundup ▸ Momentive Performance Materials is delaying its initial public offering of stock because of “adverse market conditions.” The silicones firm, which has been struggling to eke out profits, hoped to raise $250 million for itself and $100 million for major shareholders in the float. ▸ Wacker Chemie will spend $23 million to boost its presence in China. The company will expand capacity for solid silicone rubber at its Zhangjiagang site and vinyl acetate copolymer dispersions in Nanjing. It will also build R&D labs for silicone fluids,
pyrogenic silica, and other materials in Shanghai. ▸ Nippon Shokubai is considering building another acrylic acid plant at its subsidiary in Indonesia. Nippon Shokubai, the world’s largest producer of acrylic polymers used in disposable diapers, says the project would boost its acrylic acid capacity by 25% to 1 million metric tons per year. ▸ Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing will supply research quantities of BASF precious-metal-containing catalysts to pharmaceutical researchers in North Amer-
Execs officially open Lilly’s newest labs at the Alexandria Center.
Research Laboratories, said the newest labs are intended to make the company’s research more “efficient and competitive” and to locate it “in an environment in which, just outside our center, are tremendous opportunities to collaborate with leading clinical centers.” The center’s neighbors include Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medicine.—RICK MULLIN
BIOTECHNOLOGY
▸ CRISPR antibiotics company raises cash Locus Biosciences has raised $19 million in a series A funding round to develop antibiotics with CRISPR. While most gene-editing companies are working with CRISPR/ Cas9 to make fine-tuned cuts in human DNA, Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Locus is using a version of CRISPR, called CRISPR/Cas3, that acts more like a chainsaw, tearing up precisely targeted bacterial DNA. Investors include Tencent Holdings, Abstract Ventures, and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.—RYAN CROSS version, currently embroiled in a patent dispute.
ica. BASF is prepared to supply larger quantities if projects scale up. ▸ Quotient Sciences has acquired Pharmaterials, a drug development and manufacturing service provider in Reading, England. The deal follows Quotient’s acquisitions of SeaView Research and QS Pharma, both U.S.based, earlier this year.
▸ Solasia Pharma has picked the contract manufacturing firm Alcami to supply darinaparsin, a mitochondria-targeting active pharmaceutical ingredient, for the treatment of hematologic and solid cancers. Alcami will produce the compound at its plant in Germantown, Wis.
▸ Excision BioTherapeutics will exclusively license two new versions of the CRISPR/ Cas gene-editing system, called CasX and CasY, from the University of California, Berkeley. The deal indicates interest in finding alternatives to the traditional Cas9
▸ Sanofi will pay multiple sclerosis drug developer Principia Biopharma $40 million up front to develop a small-molecule inhibitor of an enzyme called Bruton’s tyrosine kinase. The deal includes future milestone payments up to $765 million.
NOVEMBER 20, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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