Business Concentrates TRADE
▸ Oxy, Mexichem start cracker Occidental Chemical and Mexichem have started their new cracker in Ingleside, Texas, on time and on budget. Construction for the $1.5 billion, 550,000-metric-tonper-year unit began in 2014. Oxy will use the ethylene to make vinyl chloride, which Mexichem will convert into polyvinyl chloride resin and pipe. The plant is the first new U.S. ethylene cracker to start up in the shale gas era. Dow Chemical, Chevron Phillips, and ExxonMobil plan to start up new crackers—each about three times the size of the Oxy-Mexichem unit—later this year.—ALEX TULLO
INVESTMENT
▸ Berkshire loses, gains in chemicals Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol unit is winding down its oil-field services unit due to a downturn in the oil industry. The move generated a 2016 loss of $365 million for the company. The wind-down includes the sale of Integrity Industries, which Lubrizol acquired as part of its 2014 purchase of the oil-field chemicals business of Weatherford International. Lubrizol will also shutter or sell parts of the business and absorb other lines into the Lubrizol additives business segment. Separately, Berkshire realized a $1.2 billion gain from the conversion, last December, of Dow Chemical preferred stock into common shares, which Berkshire subsequently sold. Berkshire had been receiving dividends of $255 million per year from Dow on the $3 billion worth of preferred shares it purchased back in 2009. —ALEX TULLO
ADHESIVES
▸ Henkel to buy Darex Packaging Henkel will pay more than $1 billion to acquire GCP Applied Technologies’ Darex Packaging Technologies, a leading maker of can sealants and coatings for metal packaging. The unit, which has 700 employees and $300 million in annual sales, will be added
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 6, 2017
Chemical ramp-up threatened Transportation logistics threaten to bedevil the U.S. chemical industry as petrochemical output generated because of the shale gas revolution ramps up. According to a report just released by consultants PwC and the American Chemistry Council, bottlenecks in rail, ship, and truck chemical shipments could cost the industry more than $22 billion over a 10-year period ending in 2025. Challenges include a shortage of qualified truck drivers as baby boomers retire, congestion at marine ports, and significant delays at high-traffic rail nodes such as in Chicago, Houston, and New Orleans. The report, which surveyed 68 chemical firms and a number of transportation sector stakeholders, calls for cooperation, rule changes, and infrastructure investment “to ensure the chemicals renaissance delivers its full economic potential.”—MARC REISCH
to Henkel’s adhesives technologies portfolio. GCP, which split off from W.R. Grace a year ago, says the transaction will allow it to focus on its construction products businesses, including concrete additives and waterproofing membranes —MARC
ENERGY
REISCH
The Race for Water Foundation will launch a new oceangoing vessel in April to circle the globe. Powered by solar cells and hydrogen produced on board via sea water
POLYMERS
▸ Solar-hydrogen boat to launch
▸ Wacker builds polymer binder plant Wacker Chemie says it has earmarked $26 million to build a plant for making polymeric binders based on polyvinyl acetate and vinyl acetate copolymers at its site in Burghausen, Germany. The copolymers plant will have an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons and is scheduled for completion by year-end. Wacker already produces polymeric binders in Burghausen. They are used to formulate low-odor and low-emission indoor paints and Wacker installs as a key raw material a tank for its in dispersible powpolymeric ders for construction binders plant in applications. —ALEX
Burghausen.
SCOTT
Solar- and hydrogenpowered ship emits no CO2. electrolysis, the ship will also get some help from a towing kite. The five-year expedition hopes to point the way to reducing marine pollution.—MARC REISCH
FINANCE
▸ Merck writes off hepatitis C drug Merck & Co. has decided to write off its R&D program for uprifosbuvir, a nucleotide prodrug in Phase II development for treating hepatitis C. Merck acquired the compound when it purchased Idenix Pharmaceuticals for $3.9 billion in 2014. Recent changes in the pricing and sales outlook for the competitive hepatitis C market caused Merck to reassess its prospects and the drug’s value. As a result, the company will take a $2.9 billion pretax charge against 2016 earnings. Merck says it will continue to evaluate options for
CREDIT: WACKER (TANK); RACE FOR WATER FOUNDATION (SHIP)
PETROCHEMICALS
the uprifosbuvir clinical development program.—ANN THAYER
ONCOLOGY
▸ Start-up to develop radiotherapeutics Fusion Pharmaceuticals has launched to develop α-particle radiotherapeutics for treating cancer. The new firm, based in Hamilton, Ontario, received $25 million in series A financing from Johnson & Johnson and other investors. Fusion was founded by John Valliant, a chemist who also founded the Centre for Probe Development & Commercialization at Canada’s McMaster University. Fusion’s lead product, FPX-01, will deliver actinium-225 to tumor cells with the help of a centyrin-based targeting molecule from J&J’s Janssen Biotech unit.—
MICHAEL MCCOY
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
▸ Astellas, Affinivax form vaccine pact Astellas Pharma and Affinivax are joining to develop a vaccine targeting Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that kills more than 1.6 million people per year, according to the World Health Organization. The partners will use Affinivax’s multiple anti-
gen-presenting system technology, said to enable the binding of protective polysaccharides and proteins in a single vaccine. Japan-based Astellas will pay Affinivax $10 million up front as well as potential milestone payments.—MICHAEL MCCOY
SEQUENCING
▸ BMS teams with Grail on cancer detection Bristol-Myers Squibb has undertaken a research collaboration with Grail, a computer-based DNA-sequencing firm specializing in cancer detection, aimed at developing blood tests that detect cancer in early stages. BMS will gain access to the company’s clinical trial database as a resource in understanding tumor genomics. BMS, along with Johnson & Johnson, Celgene, and others, has invested $900 million in Grail’s series B fundraising round. Grail expects to raise more than $1 billion to advance cancer blood testing before the latest round closes.—RICK MULLIN
INVESTMENT
▸ Perrigo sells its Tysabri royalties Perrigo has agreed to sell rights to the royalty stream from sales of the multiple
sclerosis drug Tysabri. Royalty Pharma will pay $2.2 billion in cash up front to Perrigo and up to $650 million more in possible milestone payments to get royalties from Jan. 1 onward. Tysabri is sold by Biogen, which had nearly $2 billion in 2016 sales of the drug. Perrigo acquired royalty rights in 2013 when it bought Elan, which had partnered with Biogen to develop the drug. Royalty Pharma owns interests in more than 40 approved drugs and has invested over $850 million in R&D funding in exchange for future royalties on products still in development.—ANN THAYER
PROCESS CHEMISTRY
▸ Takeda spins off operations Takeda Pharmaceutical will transfer part of its Japanese process development and manufacturing operations to Bushu Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese contract manufacturing firm. The move involves 200 employees and the major portion of a Takeda process development facility near Osaka. Bushu will use these assets and employees to provide process development, formulation, and manufacturing services to Takeda, including small quantities of new drugs to be used in clinical trials. Takeda says the downsizing of its manufacturing footprint will help it focus more on bringing new drugs to market.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS
TREMBLAY
Business Roundup
lian cells and microbes to produce biopharmaceuticals.
▸ Daesung Industrial Gases is being sold by a consortium led by Goldman Sachs to MBK Partners, which calls itself the largest independent private equity firm in Asia. The purchase price for Daesung, one of South Korea’s largest industrial gases firms, was about $1.8 billion.
▸ Koch Industries’ Invista unit is exploring “strategic alternatives” for its apparel and advanced textiles fiber business. Invista says if it doesn’t find a buyer, “we will gladly hold the business and continue to invest for the future.”
▸ DuPont will stop making Kevlar p-aramid fiber in Charleston, S.C., and consolidate production in Richmond, Va. About 115 employees will be affected by the shutdown. DuPont opened the Charleston plant in 2011 at a cost of $500 million.
▸ Bayer raised $1.6 billion by reducing its stake in spin-off Covestro to 53%. Bayer will still consolidate Covestro’s results with its own, but the move cuts Bayer’s debt as it gets ready to close the purchase of Monsanto for $66 billion. ▸ Fujifilm will create a new business division focused on contract manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals and small-molecule pharmaceuticals. The new unit, expected to achieve sales of $885 million by 2024, will mostly consist of two plants in the U.S. and the U.K. that use mamma-
▸ Electrochaea, a Munich-based cleantech start-up, says it has successfully secured a European Union patent for a strain of the microorganism Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus, which converts hydrogen and CO2 into methane. The firm recently validated its technology at a facility in Denmark.
▸ Arcinova, a U.K.-based R&D services provider for the pharmaceutical sector, says it has received a $922,000 loan that will enable it to increase its workforce of 63 to 94 employees. Owner Arc Trinova bought the business and site in Alnwick, England, from Covance in 2015. ▸ Exonics Therapeutics, a newly formed biotechnology firm, received $5 million in seed financing from the nonprofit CureDuchenne. Exonics is focused on developing gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 to correct mutations causing Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular diseases.
MARCH 6, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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