Business Concentrates LITIGATION
▸ Eastman Chemical resigns from trade group Eastman Chemical has resigned from Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), a trade group, over its support of President Donald J. Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris climate accord. In response to an inquiry from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a public interest group, Eastman says it values IECA’s work in other matters. But when it comes to climate change, Eastman says it “cannot reconcile continued participation in IECA with our commitment to sustainability.” SABIC told the Resource Centre it disagrees with IECA’s stance on the Paris accord but still remains a group member.—MARC REISCH
START-UPS
▸ New York biotech incubator opens Alexandria Real Estate Equities has opened its LaunchLabs facility for life sciences and technology firms in New York City. About 13 start-ups focused on areas such as 3-D printing of live tissue, computational drug discovery, and cancer vaccines are taking up residence LaunchLabs in at the facility. New New York City. resident Neochromosome, a maker of synthetic chromosomes, won a $100,000 entrepreneurship prize to mark LaunchLabs’ opening.—MARC REISCH
BUSINESS
▸ Air Liquide places bets on start-ups Air Liquide says it has invested more than $11 million in start-up firms since the start of the year. Investments include Ubleam, which has developed internet-enabled tagging technology that could track gas cylinders for industry, and DietSensor, which has developed an application to help people
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JUNE 19, 2017
Arkema files complaint against Honeywell Arkema has renewed its complaint with the European Commission over Honeywell International’s refusal to license Arkema to produce the low-global-warming refrigerant hydrofluoroolefin (HFO)-1234yf. The French firm accuses Honeywell of dominating the HFO-1234yf market and preventing fair competition. The Commission opened up an investigation in 2011 F F after Arkema first complained, but little came of that effort. Since then, HFO-1234yf has become the auto air-conditioning gas of F F choice globally, and Arkema wants the European Commission to HFO-1234yf ensure it can obtain a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” license. Honeywell and Chemours, which codeveloped the refrigerant, are the major producers. However, last year Honeywell licensed India’s Navin Fluorine International and Japan’s Asahi Glass to make the refrigerant.—MARC REISCH
with diabetes track the glucose levels of their meals. The industrial gas firm also made several follow-on investments in start-ups such as Solidia Technologies, which cures concrete with CO2; Water Planet, which provides wastewater treatment; and Quanta Dialysis Technologies, which designs home hemodialysis devices.—MARC REISCH
PEOPLE
▸ Hexion changes Craigs Former Chemtura head Craig A. Rogerson will replace Craig O. Morrison as CEO of Hexion when Morrison retires next month. Morrison has helmed Hexion since it was formed in 2005. Before that, he was the CEO of Hexion predecessor firm Borden Chemical for a few years. Rogerson is also a seasoned executive. He led Chemtura from 2008 until it was sold to Lanxess earlier this year. Before that, he had a 27-year career at Hercules.—ALEX TULLO
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ PEF resin gets EU backing A public-private effort to advance biobased industries in Europe will work to establish a manufacturing supply chain for polyethylene furanoate (PEF), a polymer that can be made completely from plants. The European Union’s Bio-Based Industries
Joint Undertaking has awarded the effort a $28 million grant. Like polyethylene terephthalate, PEF is a recyclable polyester that can be used to make beverage bottles and films. The consortium includes U.K. chemical firm Croda, Danish toy maker Lego, and Synvina, a PEF raw materials joint venture between BASF and Avantium.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
INFORMATICS
▸ Citrine raises funds for materials design Citrine Informatics has raised $7.6 million in its first round of funding to support commercialization of its chemicals and materials artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Citrine combines AI with what it calls the world’s largest materials database to speed development of new materials by predicting and optimizing their behavior. Separately, Monsanto will work with Atomwise, another AI firm, to speed development of crop protection products.—MEL-
ODY BOMGARDNER
BIOFUELS
▸ Heineken beer barge beats CO2 Heineken has teamed up with sustainable fuel firm GoodFuels and shipping company Nedcargo to move beer for export on a canal barge from the Heineken brewery in Zoet-
CREDIT: ALEXANDRIA REAL ESTATE EQUITIES
POLICY
microbial hosts and fermentation processes to the initial fermentation, isolation, and purification of APIs. Johnson Matthey will be responsible for scale-up, formulation, and commercialization of microbial strains.—
RICK MULLIN
ONCOLOGY This screen shot shows a barge-load of Heineken beer heading out to the port of Rotterdam for export.
erwoude, the Netherlands, to deep-sea terminals at the port of Rotterdam. GoodFuels supplied marine fuel that contained 30% low-carbon biofuels made from forestry waste. The firms say the fuel blend reduces CO2 emissions by 25% and sharply reduces emissions of nitrogen and particulates.—
MELODY BOMGARDNER
OUTSOURCING
▸ Johnson Matthey teams with Intrexon
▸ Celgene in cancer deal with Dragonfly Celgene will pay Dragonfly Therapeutics $33 million up front as part of an immuno-oncology drug development pact. Celgene gains the right to license up to four blood cancer treatments developed using Dragonfly’s technology platform. Launched in 2015, Dragonfly is developing therapies that can link proteins expressed on the surface of cancer cells to white blood cells called natural killer cells, which then alert other immune cells to attack the cancer cells.—LISA JARVIS
ANTIBIOTICS
Johnson Matthey and and Intrexon, a Budapest-based biopharmaceutical firm, will jointly develop microbial strains for the production of peptide-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) via fermentation. Intrexon will contribute its proprietary
▸ BARDA expands Basilea’s funding The Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority (BARDA) has agreed to give Basilea Pharmaceutica an
CREDIT: GOODFUELS
Business Roundup ▸ Stepan has agreed to purchase a BASF oleochemical surfactant facility in Ecatepec, Mexico, for an undisclosed sum. The plant has 50,000 metric tons of annual capacity.
velop a process that converts waste plastics into a substitute for crude oil. “The transition to sustainable lifestyles cannot be held back,” says CEO Matti Lievonen.
▸ Evonik Industries has opened a research center in Darmstadt, Germany to develop innovations for the lubricant market. Some 15–20% of global energy is consumed just to overcome friction, so there’s a great need for products to reduce that energy loss, the firm says.
▸ BASF and Sumitomo Chemical are collaborating on a new fungicide, which was discovered by Sumitomo. The companies will pursue regulatory applications next year and believe that the product will be used for diseases resistant to current fungicides.
▸ Neste, the Finnish oil firm, says it is investing “a large amount of resources” to de-
▸ FMC plans to sell its omega-3 fatty acid business. Originally acquired in 2013 from Norway’s Trygg Pharma
additional $54.8 million on an existing contract to support late-stage studies of ceftobiprole. The cephalosporin antibiotic is being explored as a treatment for bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and skin infections. Basilea recently reached an agreement with FDA on the design of Phase III studies, which the company expects to begin within the next three to six months. Basilea could receive a total of $108 million under the BARDA contract.—
LISA JARVIS
FINANCE
▸ WuXi Biologics shares surge on first day of trading Shares in WuXi Biologics surged 39% on June 13, its first day of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company, a Chinese contract researcher and manufacturer of antibody-drug conjugates and other biological drugs, raised more than $500 million from its initial public offering. WuXi Biologics is a subsidiary of the giant contract research firm WuXi AppTec, which delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 after a management buyout. At the time, WuXi’s Chair Ge Li said he did not intend to relist the company on a stock exchange in China.—JEAN-
FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
for $345 million, the fatty acid business was not included in FMC’s sale of its health and nutrition business to DuPont in March. ▸ Olon, a contract manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) based in Milan, has acquired the chemical research and manufacturing division of contract research services firm Ricerca Biosciences, based in Concord, Ohio. The deal gives Olon research and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. ▸ Novartis, the European Investment Fund, and Verily, formerly Google Life Sciences, are among the investors in the $300 million Medicxi
Growth fund. The U.K.- and Switzerland-based fund will invest in late-stage European life sciences start-ups that often do not have the same access to local financial support as do their U.S.-based counterparts, backers say. ▸ Carma Therapeutics has secured an initial round of financing, led by AbbVie Ventures and HealthCap, to support its immuno-oncology portfolio. Carma, which in 2016 was spun out of the labs of University of Pennsylvania oncologist Saar Gill, will use the money primarily to develop CARMA-0508, an adoptive cellular immunotherapy for solid tumors that have metastasized.
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