ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
▸ Grace completes chromatography exit
meningitis and rabies. Chinese authorities say they will start to oversee nonessential vaccines.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
START-UPS W.R. Grace has reached agreements to divest its remaining businesses in chromatography instruments, columns, and related laboratory products. Grace says it will continue to sell chromatography silica media. Germany’s Dr. Maisch will buy Grace’s line of analytical HPLC columns, preparative columns, and packing equipment and services. England-based Hichrom and Singapore-based S*Pure will buy a number of other Grace column brands. Büchi Labortechnik acquired Grace’s portfolio of flash chromatography and evaporative light-scattering detector instruments last month. —MARC REISCH
VACCINES
Thunderbolt Pharma has become the first company created by Vitesse Biologics, a drug development collaboration formed by Baxalta, Mayo Clinic, and Velocity Pharmaceutical Development. Thunderbolt has acquired a BAFF/APRIL dual antagonist program from Astellas Pharma. With the three Vitesse partners contributing financially, Thunderbolt will develop the dual antagonists for B-cell-mediated disorders including systemic lupus erythematosus. Baxalta, Mayo Clinic, Velocity, and Astellas are all shareholders in Thunderbolt.—ANN
THAYER
▸ China arrests 125 for tainted vaccines
Red quantum dots being manufactured in a 70-L vessel at Nanosys. Hitachi plans to begin shipping QDEFbrand film to manufacturers of displays.—
MICHAEL MCCOY
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
▸ Italian merger set in drug ingredients
MATERIALS
Chinese prosecutors arrested 125 people for illegally selling vaccines and are starting to investigate 37 government officials for negligence and corruption. The arrests come after the disclosure in March of a vast network that sold poorly stored and out-ofdate vaccines throughout China since 2011. Unlike compulsory vaccines that are distributed by the government, the defective vaccines were noncompulsory and meant to prevent the spread of diseases including
CREDIT: NANOSYS
▸ Thunderbolt licenses Astellas B-cell program
▸ Companies join for quantum dots Nanosys and Hitachi Chemical are joining to develop Nanosys’s quantum-dot-containing films for display applications. California-based Nanosys says its quantum dots, which are semiconducting inorganic particles, make liquid-crystal diode displays more vivid by enabling pure colors.
The Italian firm Olon has acquired its rival Infa in a deal that will create one of Europe’s largest pharmaceutical chemical makers. The combined company expects its sales this year to exceed $335 million. It will operate seven plants in Italy and one in Spain that make active ingredients for generic drugs and provide contract manufacturing. The combined firm is owned by Italy’s P&R Group, which also owns the drug company Fidia Farmaceutici and the resin maker Sir Industriale.—MICHAEL MCCOY
Business Roundup
ethoxylation production at the plant earlier this year.
▸ Kuraray will expand its ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer plant in Pasadena, Texas, by 11,000 metric tons per year. The Japanese firm says the project will cost $75 million and be completed by the summer of 2018. It recently opened a polyvinyl alcohol plant at the site and is considering adding a vinyl acetate facility.
▸ Amyris has struck a deal with South Korea’s CJ CheilJedang to use CJ’s manufacturing capacity to produce farnesene, Amyris’s main biobased product. Amyris already makes farnesene in Brazil with its partner Bunge.
▸ Chemours, the former performance chemicals business of DuPont, is asking the state of Delaware for a grant of $9 million. The money will be used for a headquarters pro-
ject in Wilmington, Del., and to retain jobs. ▸ Clariant will develop catalysts that work with ethanol-to-olefins technology developed by Gevo, a biobased chemicals firm. Clariant will build upon Gevo-discovered mixed metal oxide catalysts that convert ethanol to propylene and isobutylene. ▸ Stepan will cease all production at its detergents facility in Longford Mills, Ontario, by the end of this year. The company discontinued
▸ Avista Pharma Solutions will expand its contract microbiology and analytical chemistry labs in Agawam, Mass. Avista was formed last year through the merger of assets from Accuratus Lab Services, Array BioPharma, and Scynexis.
▸ Arrivo BioVentures has launched with $49 million in committed capital from Jazz Pharmaceuticals and other investors. To be led by Research Triangle Park, N.C.-area entrepreneurs, Arrivo plans to acquire four to six new drug candidates over the next several years. ▸ BASF has sold its Kollicoat IR pharmaceutical tablet coating systems business to Colorcon, a developer of coatings and controlled-release products for the drug industry. The companies say they will continue a tablet coatings cooperation that began in October 2014.
MAY 30, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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