Business Concentrates BIOTECHNOLOGY
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
J&J invests in oral peptide developer
Covestro pursues biobased aniline
Janssen Biotech, the research arm of Johnson & Johnson, will pay Protagonist Therapeutics $50 million for access to an oral peptide in preclinical studies as an inflammatory bowel disease treatment. Protagonist could see another $940 million in milestone payments if the peptide, an IL-23 receptor antagonist dubbed PTG-200, is a commercial success. The deal bolsters J&J’s portfolio of treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, an umbrella term for chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Last year, J&J gained approval for Stelara, an antibody for Crohn’s disease, and it’s now testing the treatment against ulcerative colitis in a late-stage study. And the firm is planning a Phase III study for its antibody guselkumab in Crohn’s disease. J&J’s venture arm participated in Protagonist’s second major round of funding in 2013. With PTG-200, J&J is looking to add an oral option to the injected drugs in its repertoire. Although peptides represent a sizable chunk of the pharmacopoeia—more than 60 peptide drugs are on the market—their instability in the body means all must be delivered by injection. Protagonist is one of several companies trying to put peptides into a pill—what CEO Dinesh Patel calls “the holy grail in the field of peptides.” The biotech firm has spent years trying to overcome the ways peptides are broken down in the gastrointestinal tract. They are myriad: the acids in the gut, the proteases found in the small intestine and colon, the reducing environment in the colon, and the gut microbes that inactivate peptides. The funds from the J&J deal will help Protagonist advance its lead oral peptide, currently in Phase II studies against ulcerative colitis.—LISA JARVIS
In a development that could eventually put a large swath of the polymers world on a low-carbon footing, Bayer spin-off Covestro has demonstrated in the lab a process for making the polyurethane precursor aniline from sugar instead of petrochemical raw materials. Aniline is one of the most important chemical building blocks. Nearly 5 million metric tons of it is used globally, mostly to make the polyurethane raw material methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. Aniline is also used to manufacture dyes, pigments, rubber processing chemicals, and agricultural chemicals. In the conventional route to aniline, benzene is nitrated with nitric acid and then hydrogenated into aniline. Historically, aniline has also been made by reacting phenol and ammonia. Covestro has demonstrated Covestro hasn’t completely taken its process for biobased the wraps off its process. The compaaniline in the lab. ny tells C&EN that a microorganism combines sugar and ammonia into an unnamed intermediate. A chemical catalyst then converts this molecule into aniline, resulting in a product with entirely biobased carbon content. Covestro has been working on the process for about five years, collaborating with the University of Stuttgart, the CAT Catalytic Center at RWTH Aachen University, and Bayer. The next steps will be to hone the process in the laboratory while gathering the information needed for scale-up. The company might begin pilot-scale production in 2020, followed by commercialization around 2025. Covestro is no stranger to low-carbon polyurethane raw materials. Last year, the company started up a plant in Dormagen, Germany, for making polyols that derive 20% of their carbon from carbon dioxide. In 2015, it unveiled a biobased polyurethane coatings hardener, pentamethylene diisocyanate.—ALEX TULLO
Fumed silica links Cabot, Dow Corning In the third iteration of a successful partnership, Cabot Corp. will build an $80 million fumed silica facility in Carrollton, Ky., adjacent to a Dow Corning silicone monomers plant. Cabot will produce the high-purity silica by reacting oxygen and hydrogen with a chlorosilane by-product provided via pipeline by Dow Corning. In turn, Cabot will send back its hydrochloric acid by-product to be used as a raw material for making methyl chloride. Dow Corning reacts methyl chloride with silicon metal to produce chlorosilanes, the starting material for silicone polymers. The new plant is expected to open in 2020. Cabot and Dow Corning have a similar symbiotic relationship at facilities in Michigan and Wales. In both cases, Dow Corning also buys fumed silica for making elastomers.—MICHAEL MCCOY
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JUNE 5, 2017
Cabot
Main product: fumed silica (SiO2)
By-product: hydrochloric acid
By-product: monomethylchlorosilane
Dow Corning
Main product: dimethyldichlorosilane
CREDIT: COVESTRO (LAB); YANG KU/C&EN (SILICA GRAPHIC)
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