Business Concentrates DRUG DEVELOPMENT REGULATION
Biogen to spin off hemophilia business
Victrex has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over what the regulator sees as the British polyether ether ketone (PEEK)
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producer’s monopolistic behavior. FTC says Invibio, the Victrex subsidiary that sells the high-end polymer for medical implants, maintained its commanding 90% market share by forcing customers to sign exclusive contracts. Competitors Solvay and Evonik were locked out of the market. In a statement, Victrex points out that it didn’t have to admit to breaking the law and it will not be subjected to fines or penalties. It will, however, have to permit competition under existing and future contracts.—ALEX TULLO
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
▸ Linde to develop new helium field Expanding access to helium, which has been in short supply in recent years for scientific instrument users, Linde signed an agreement to design and construct a helium extraction and process plant in South Africa. The unit should be ready to extract helium in 2018 from a new field with 700 million m3 of natural gas and helium reserves now under development by energy firm Renergen. Although natural gas typically has concentrations of helium up to 1%, the gas from the new field contains the element in concentrations of up to 4%, Linde says.—MARC REISCH
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
▸ Solvay is selling South American unit Solvay has agreed to sell its controlling 71% stake in South American polyvinyl chloride (PVC) maker Solvay Indupa to Brazilian chlorine maker Unipar Carbocloro
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 9, 2016
Biogen will spin off its hemophilia business to shareholders as an independent, publicly traded company and focus its efforts on developing drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. The new company, as yet unnamed, will pursue discovery and development of therapies for the treatment of hemophilia and market Biogen’s two existing drugs in that category, Eloctate and Alprolix, treatments for hemophilia A and hemophilia B, respectively. These two hemophilia drugs had $640 million in combined revenues during the 12-month period that ended on March 31. John G. Cox, Biogen’s current executive vice president of pharmaceutical operations and technology, will serve as CEO of the new company, which will be located in the Boston area. The spin-off is expected to be completed by early next year.—RICK MULLIN
in a transaction worth $202 million. The business operates two integrated polyvinyl chloride plants. Solvay tried to sell the business to Braskem in 2014, but Brazilian regulators nixed the transaction on the grounds that it would form a Brazilian PVC monopoly. —ALEX TULLO
New PTMEG plant in Xinjiang province, a region rich in gas and coal.
ONCOLOGY
▸ Cancer-focused Ideaya unveiled Oncology-focused Ideaya Biosciences has launched with $46 million in its first formal round of financing. Backers include 5AM Ventures, Canaan Partners, Celgene, Wuxi Healthcare Ventures, and Novartis. The company is led by Yujiro Hata—who previously was chief operating officer at Flexus Biosciences, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb last year for $1.5 billion—and has a star-studded cast of scientific advisers. Ideaya will develop drugs that target the tumor microenvironment as well as treatments that exploit the concept of “synthetic lethality,” in which perturbations in at least two genes are required for cell death.—LISA JARVIS
PETROCHEMICALS
▸ Chinese firm uses Invista process Invista has licensed its process for manufacturing polytetramethylene ether glycol to Xinjiang Blue Ridge Tunhe Chemical
Industry, enabling the Chinese firm to start up a 46,000-metric-ton-per-year production line last month. PTMEG, also known as polytetrahydrofuran, is used in the production of stretchy fibers such as spandex. Invista had previously licensed its process for producing butanediol to Blue Ridge.—
JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ AstraZeneca plans to reshape manufacturing As part of a plan to focus on its oncology, cardiovascular, diabetes, and respiratory disease businesses, AstraZeneca will streamline operations, primarily on its commercial and manufacturing sides. Although these moves will cost it $1.5 billion, the company says it can generate annual cost savings of $1.1 billion by the end of 2017. The moves will “optimize its presence” at strategic production sites while adding capacity for biologics. Previously, AstraZeneca said it would close plants in Massachusetts and England. The firm also implied cuts may be coming to its R&D structure.—ANN THAYER
CREDIT: INVISTA
▸ Regulator hits Victrex monopoly
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
▸ IMI offers $70 million to solve key problems The European Union’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has put out a call for proposals from companies to advance science in the fields of antimicrobial resistance, flu, liver disease, rheumatic disease, and medicines safety. The institute is offering total project funding of $70 million. In the field of antimicrobial resistance, for instance, IMI is seeking greater understanding of the epidemiology and clinical impact of Clostridium difficile infections so that new ways can be developed to prevent and treat them.—
ALEX SCOTT
FINANCE
▸ Bind Therapeutics files for bankruptcy
CREDIT: MERCK KGaA
Bind Therapeutics, an oncology nanomedicine drug discovery company, and its affiliate Bind Biosciences Security Corp., have filed a reorganization petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. CEO Andrew Hirsch says the filing will give the firm time to reorganize while continuing collaborations with Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Financial backers for the firm
include David H. Koch’s DHK Investment and Polaris Partners.—RICK MULLIN
INVESTMENT
▸ UBS amasses fund for cancer research UBS Wealth Management and its partner MPM Capital have raised $471 million for the UBS Oncology Impact Fund. Investments by the fund will go toward developing cancer therapeutics and at the same time will seek to generate positive social impacts and competitive returns. Besides investing in early-stage therapies, the fund and its returns will support academic oncology research and help improve access to cancer care in the developing world.—ANN THAYER
year. Meanwhile, at The new Mobius its biodevelopment 2,000-L singlecenter in Martillac, use reactor at France, the company Merck’s Martillac, is increasing use of France, site. single-use bioreactors with the addition of a 2000 L Mobius reactor, a technology that the company manufactures.—RICK MULLIN
NEUROSCIENCE
▸ Marina buys Turing program
BIOLOGICS
▸ Merck KGaA expands in U.S. and France Germany’s Merck says it will increase capacity for its viral and gene therapy products in Carlsbad, Calif. The expansion, done under FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practice regimen, will incorporate single-use reactors for clinical and commercial bulk drug production, and should be completed this
Marina Biotech is exchanging 53 million of its shares, valued at $13 million dollars, for Turing Pharmaceuticals’ intranasal ketamine drug, currently in Phase III studies to treat suicidal thoughts in people with posttraumatic stress disorder. Intranasal ketamine was one of three assets acquired by Turing’s founder, Martin Shkreli, from his previous company, Retrophin. Shkreli has since been indicted for misallocating funds while at Retrophin and at a hedge fund.—LISA JARVIS
Business Roundup
bought by ChemChina in a $43 billion deal.
▸ Nova Chemicals and Dow Chemical plant accidents led to two deaths. At Nova’s Joffre, Alberta, site, a contractor working on a stationary crane at a polyethylene expansion project suffered trauma when he “came in contact with equipment.” Separately, a contractor was found unresponsive at Dow’s large Freeport, Texas, site and was later declared dead.
▸ AkzoNobel and agro-industrial cooperative Royal Cosum have formed a partnership to develop products from sugar-beet-derived cellulose. AkzoNobel will bring its cellulose chemical modification expertise to the effort.
▸ Chemours has confirmed that it will build a new plant at its Ingleside, Texas, facility to produce the low-global-warming air-conditioning refrigerant hydrofluoroolefin (HFO)1234yf. The $230 million plant will triple the firm’s current
capacity and is expected to come on-line during the latter part of 2018. ▸ BASF has sold its former sterols manufacturing facility in Pasadena, Texas, to Trecora Chemical, a maker of specialty hydrocarbons and waxes. BASF closed the plant last year and shifted sterols products to its site in Boussens, France. ▸ Syngenta has named J. Erik Fyrwald, 56, currently CEO of chemical distributor Univar, as its new CEO replacing interim CEO John Ramsay. Fyrwald, a former leader of DuPont’s agriculture and nutrition business, starts June 1 at Syngenta, which is being
▸ Braskem has named Fernando Musa, 50, current head of Braskem America, as its new CEO. He is replacing Carlos Fadigas, 45, who has led the company since the end of 2010 and is now taking another position within the Odebrecht Group, the Brazilian conglomerate that controls Braskem. ▸ Hitachi Chemical has agreed to plead guilty and pay
an as yet unspecified fine for fixing prices of electrolytic capacitors. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Hitachi engaged in collusive and noncompetitive pricing practices for the capacitors used in electronic products including computers, televisions, and home appliances. ▸ Polydrug Laboratories, a company that has already been banned from exporting to the U.S. since September 2015, has received a warning letter from FDA. During an inspection of Polydrug’s plant in Mumbai, FDA inspectors found that the company failed to investigate customers’ complaints, including one concerning the discovery of safety goggles inside a container of active pharmaceutical ingredient.
MAY 9, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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