Business Concentrates DRUG DELIVERY
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Hexion files for bankruptcy Specialty chemical maker Hexion has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and signed an agreement with creditors allowing it to strengthen its balance sheet and finance its operations. Hexion, which is controlled by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, is carrying $3.7 billion in debt. The thermoset resin specialist had sales of $2.9 billion and a net loss of $52 million in the first 9 months of 2018. Earlier this year, S&P Global Ratings downgraded Hexion’s credit because of debt due over the short term. S&P was particularly worried about loan covenants that could trigger early maturity of some of the company’s debt. Hexion has been trying to reduce debt. In 2016 it sold an adhesive and coating resin business to Synthomer for $226 million. Last year it sold an additive business to Münzing Chemie for about $50 million. A year ago, Hexion revealed it wanted
to divest a portion of its epoxy, phenolic, and coating resin segment, but it has yet to find a buyer. The segment is responsible for more than half of Hexion’s sales. The balance comes from its forest products business, which makes formaldehyde-based resins and other binders for wood products. Hexion has signed a restructuring agreement with creditors that will reduce its debt by $2 billion, inject $300 million in new equity, and finance operations. “We believe that with a stronger balance sheet, Hexion will be better positioned to further invest in our specialty product portfolio and capitalize on positive industry growth,” CEO Craig A. Rogerson says. Hexion was formed in 2005 through the merger of the Apollo-owned companies Borden Chemical, Resolution Performance Products, and Resolution Specialty Materials.—ALEX TULLO
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Drones edge toward the lab Drones, those flying machines used mainly by hobbyists and aerial photographers, may be coming to the research lab. Physical Sciences Inc. and Hudson Robotics, aided by funding from the US National Institutes of Health, have teamed up to develop drones for sample handling in life sciences facilities. PSI, based in Andover, Massachusetts, will modify its military-use drones to grip microplates and other lab consumables. Springfield, New Jersey–based Hudson Robotics will apply its lab automation
software and robot skills to direct the movement of the drones in a lab setting. The goal, according to Bruce Jamieson, Hudson Robotics’ vice president of sales and marketing, is drones that replace robotic arms in the lab. “In today’s world, you gather the instruments you need in one area and put a robot in the middle to move things from one instrument to the other,” he explains. “With a drone, the tools you need could be down the hall.” Drones can help in most operations in which a sample must move from one instrument to another, Jamieson says, such as bringing a plate to an incubator or delivering samples to a sequencer. PSI, the prime contractor, will report to the NIH on the lab drones in about 2 years. Jamieson, meanwhile, is eyeing commercialization, saying that “some lab pioneers will be clamoring for it.” He anticipates that drones could be whizzing around labs by the end of 2020.—MICHAEL
PSI will adapt its military drones for laboratory use.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | APRIL 8, 2019
MCCOY
Dyne launches for antibody-oligo conjugates The hundreds of individual muscles in the human body have long vexed drug developers trying to devise therapies that restore strength to people with genetic muscle diseases. Oligonucleotides designed to patch or block the broken genes that characterize these conditions don’t do a very good job of navigating to muscles on their own. That’s led drug companies to douse patients with high concentrations of oligonucleotide therapies, hoping that enough of the molecules will make their way into muscle. The results have been marginal. To solve that problem, a start-up called Dyne Therapeutics has raised $50 million in series A financing to develop antibody-oligo conjugates that shuttle oligo therapies into muscle cells. The idea takes a play from the antibody-drug conjugate field, where toxic anticancer drugs are attached to tumor-homing antibodies to ensure that the drugs exert their potent effects solely on cancer cells. “When you deliver a naked oligo, very little gets to the muscle,” explains Dyne CEO Romesh Subramanian. By attaching oligos to antibodies designed to bind receptors on the surface of muscle cells, Dyne is boosting the number of oligos that get into muscle cells, which engulf the antibody-oligo complexes whole. Another firm, Sarepta Therapeutics, is well known for Exondys 51, an oligo therapy designed to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. That drug was controversially approved in 2016 with little evidence that it was effective. Oligo experts point to the lack of muscle-specific delivery as the drug’s biggest holdup for success. Dyne says its first program will focus on using antibody-oligo conjugates to block the repetitive DNA mutations that cause the disease myotonic dystrophy type 1.—RYAN
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