Pharmaceuticalgrade salt is used in dialysis solutions and in liquid medications, AkzoNobel says.
Nils van der Plas, general manager of AkzoNobel’s salt business, calls “the purest salt in the world.” The main market for druggrade salt is dialysis solutions. The firm says it had been struggling to keep up with demand.—MICHAEL MCCOY
ONCOLOGY
▸ Glycoscience firm Palleon launches
PHARMACEUTICALS
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
▸ Pfizer mulls sale of consumer business
▸ Merck and KalVista sign diabetes drug pact
Pfizer is considering selling or spinning off its consumer health care division, one of the world’s biggest makers of over-the-counter drugs. Stock analysts expect the unit, which had sales last year of $3.4 billion, to fetch up to $15 billion. Industry watchers say the potential move comes as Pfizer considers a sizable acquisition to bolster its research-driven drug arm. Merck KGaA put its consumer products business up for sale last month.—LISA JARVIS
Merck & Co. will pay $9 million for a 9.9% stake in the protease inhibitor developer KalVista Pharmaceuticals. Merck is also giving KalVista $37 million up front for its lead drug candidate, a small-molecule inhibitor of an inflammation-activating enzyme called plasma kallikrein. The drug, which aims to alleviate fluid buildup in diabetic macular edema, requires an injection directly into the eye. A potential $715 million in milestone payments could come to KalVista as the firms work on oral plasma kallikrein inhibitors.—RYAN CROSS
OUTSOURCING
Waltham, Mass.-based Palleon Pharmaceuticals has launched with $47.6 million in series A funding to develop immuno-oncology drugs based on cancer glycans—the sugar molecules that protrude from tumors and are used to avoid immune system surveillance. The approach is reminiscent of checkpoint inhibitor therapies, which jump-start the immune system’s ability to target tumors, but Palleon’s drugs will take aim at immune cell receptors that get misdirected by tumor glycans. Palleon’s scientific cofounders include Stanford University chemist Carolyn Bertozzi and University of Dundee glycoimmunologist Paul Crocker.—RYAN CROSS
▸ CordenPharma will buy a Pfizer pharmaceutical plant The pharmaceutical chemical company CordenPharma has agreed to acquire a high-containment active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility from Pfizer in Boulder, Colo. The plant, which Pfizer acquired as part of its 2015 purchase of Hospira, has production capabilities ranging from small scale to 3,000 L and more than 100 employees. CordenPharma, which is part of International Chemical Investors Group, has acquired several API plants in recent years, including a Roche peptides facility that’s also in Boulder.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
Business Roundup
C R E D I T: A K ZO N O BE L
▸ Eastman Chemical says an Oct. 4 explosion at its coal gasification operations in Kingsport, Tenn., will cut earnings by $50 million to $100 million. No one was seriously injured in the accident, the firm says. ▸ Actega, a division of the specialty chemical maker Altana, is investing $21 million in its sealing compounds plant in Bremen, Germany. Production capacity will increase 50% and R&D capability will triple, the firm says.
DRUG DISCOVERY
▸ Broad and Deerfield form lucrative pact In a unique partnership, the health care venture firm Deerfield Management will invest more than $50 million in drug discovery projects at Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. During the five-year pact, Deerfield will support academic research—initially five to 10 projects—and have an option to create companies based on promising programs. While a number of research institutions have hooked up with drug companies that want to gain early access to academic discoveries, Broad’s pact with an investment firm is unusual.—LISA JARVIS
Kashima, Japan, and will double capacity at two Chinese joint ventures.
to target, infect, and kill solid tumor cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
▸ DowDuPont has agreed to sell its Saran polyvinylidene chloride business to South Korea’s SK Global Chemical for an undisclosed sum. Saran production will continue in Midland, Mich. Earlier this year, Dow agreed to sell its ethylene acrylic acid polymer business to SK.
▸ Janssen plans to invest $355 million to expand its biologics manufacturing capabilities in Ringaskiddy, Ireland, creating 200 new jobs. The plant, near Cork, opened in 2005 and is currently working on three products in clinical development.
▸ Kemira is joining with the process technology firm Valmet to develop digital products for customers that make pulp and paper. Kemira supplies chemicals used to treat water in the paper industry.
▸ Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend $160 million to expand production of optical fiber ingot. By the first half of 2019, the company will add a new wing to its plant in
▸ AbbVie will license up to three viral oncolytic immunotherapies from Turnstone Biologics. Turnstone is engineering Maraba viruses, found in Brazilian sand flies,
▸ Pertinax Pharma has launched a controlled-release version of the antiseptic chlorhexidine. When used in a wound dressing, the product can significantly reduce the number of dressing changes required, the British firm says.
OCTOBER 16, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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