Business Concentrates INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
▸ Sinochem offers to buy rubber firm Sinochem International has offered $177 million for a 30% stake in Halcyon Agri, a natural rubber processor listed on the Singapore stock exchange. Sinochem, a chemical trading firm, has also secured the stake of major shareholders so that it will own at least 54% of Halcyon. In a next step, Halcyon will offer to buy GMG Global, a natural rubber producer that is 51% owned by Sinochem. Halcyon will also acquire Sinochem’s natural rubber processing assets in China and Malaysia. In the end, Halcyon will be the world largest natural rubber supplier with projected annual sales of $2.3 billion, plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia, and 35 processing facilities.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
SQM joins lithium expansion fray SQM is the latest lithium chemicals producer to announce an expansion. It is forming a joint venture with Lithium Americas to develop the latter’s Caucharí-Olaroz project in Argentina. SQM, a Chilean firm that calls itself the world’s largest lithium chemicals maker, is investing $25 million in the joint venture, which envisions building a plant with the capacity for 40,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate equivalents. SQM puts the global lithium chemicals market at 150,000 metric tons and expects it to grow by 10% this year thanks to expanding demand from the battery market. Competitor Albemarle, which predicts 20–30% annual growth in batteries for electric vehicles, earlier announced lithium chemicals projects in Chile and either the U.S. or Asia. The South Korean firm Posco is also building a lithium plant in Argentina.—MICHAEL MCCOY
POLYMERS
▸ Metabolix looks to large scale again
START-UPS
▸ Snapdragon gets new lab and CEO Snapdragon Chemistry, a developer of continuous flow chemistry methods for manufacturing, is expanding. The company and
Metabolix and the South Korean amino acid specialist CJ CheilJedang are looking to establish large-scale manufacturing of Metabolix’s biobased polyhydroxyalkanoate polymers. The companies are considering the construction of a 10,000-metric-ton-per-year PHA plant at CJ’s Fort Dodge, Iowa, facility, where the firm already makes lysine. Metabolix had a PHA production joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland in Clinton, Iowa, but ADM shuttered the plant in 2012 due to meager sales. Metabolix subsequently shifted its marketing focus to specialized applications of the polymers.—ALEX TULLO
GREENHOUSE GASES Snapdragon’s new its partner Zaiput labs in Cambridge. Flow Technologies, which develops flow chemistry equipment, are in new labs at the same Cambridge, Mass., location. Snapdragon also has completed an investment round and will expand in areas including process analytical technologies and computational modeling. At the same time, the company is recruiting more scientists and engineers. And Matthew Bio, who was hired as chief scientific officer in September 2015, has been named president and CEO. He succeeds cofounder and MIT chemistry professor Timothy Jamison (see page 4), who continues to serve as chairman.—ANN THAYER
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▸ Honeywell licenses low-GWP refrigerant Honeywell has licensed India’s Navin Fluorine International technology to make hydrofluoroolefin (HFO)-1234yf, an automobile air conditioning fluid with low global warming potential (GWP). Small-scale production in India by the end of this year will help satisfy growing demand for the new refrigerant, which replaces the high-GWP hydrofluorocarbon-134a (see page 14). Honeywell also has a supply agreement with Japan’s Asahi Glass and expects to open its own HFO-1234yf plant next year in Geismar, La. Together with its suppliers,
Honeywell says, it is investing $300 million to increase HFO-1234yf availability. Competitor Chemours is planning a $178 million plant in Texas.—MARC REISCH
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ Glucarate output exceeds projections Montana-based Rivertop Renewables says its first commercial production of sodium glucarate from sugar has exceeded expected plant capacity by 15%. Rivertop makes the biodegradable salt via chemical oxidation at a plant operated by DTI in Danville, Va. The companies say the facility, which started up in August 2015, now has the capacity to make 4 million kg per year of sodium glucarate. Rivertop plans to sell the output for use in products including dishwasher detergent and corrosion inhibitors.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
DRUG SAFETY
▸ WHO faults Indian vaccine plant The World Health Organization has issued a Notice of Concern to Cadila Healthcare after it found quality control deficiencies at the company’s vaccine plant in Moraiya, India. The agency will not qualify any new products made at the plant until Cadila improves its quality assurance systems. During an inspection in October 2015, WHO inspectors found, among other
SNAPDRAGON
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
problems, that Cadila employees falsified results on several vaccine batches that had tested positive for contamination. Cadila blames sloppy work by a microbiologist who has since been fired. Cadila also admits to poor review mechanisms at its labs and a lack of management supervision. The company says it is striving to upgrade controls at the plant, which does not supply the U.S.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
▸ Gilead to pay Merck in patent dispute
O HN
A federal jury in California has ordered Gilead Sciences, maker of the hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, to pay $200 million in damages to Merck & Co. for patent infringement. The patents relate to an active ingredient in both drugs, sofosbuvir, which Gilead acquired from Pharmasset in 2011. The dispute centered on whether Pharmasset derived the chemical from a Merck patent or whether Merck’s patent was based on work done at Pharmasset. O The jury found for O Merck but calculated damages far below NH O the $2 billion Merck O P N O O sought. In closing O arguments, Gilead OH F had said that it Sofosbuvir paid an estimated
$15 billion to acquire and develop sofosbuvir. Merck won approval for its hepatitis C drug, Zepatier, earlier this year.—RICK MULLIN
ONCOLOGY
▸ Tesaro, MD Anderson target small molecules Biopharmaceutical developer Tesaro and the Institute for Applied Cancer Science (IACS) at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will work together to discover and develop drug candidates against immuno-oncology targets. The collaboration is the first for IACS focused on small molecules. IACS will conduct drug discovery research and identify clinical candidates. Tesaro will fund R&D in return for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize any candidates that emerge.—
ANN THAYER
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ Sanofi names new head of research Sanofi has appointed Yong-Jun Liu as head of research. Liu has 25 years of drug research experience, most recently at AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit. Earlier he held research management positions
Business Roundup
SANOFI
▸ Kemira will spend up to $70 million to expand sodium chlorate capacity at its site in Joutseno, Finland, by fourth-quarter 2017. Nordic consumption of the bleaching agent is growing, Kemira says, due to recent pulp mill expansions and other planned projects. ▸ Arsenal Capital Partners, a private equity firm, is buying and combining three U.S. makers of foam material for bedding and upholstery. To be known as Elite Foam Solutions, the business will operate 10 production facilities supplying polyurethane and other foam materials.
▸ Teijin will spend $13 million to expand capacity for p-aramid fiber at its plant in Matsuyama, Japan. The material is used in protective clothing, in ropes and cables, and as reinforcement in automotive rubber parts. ▸ Chevron Phillips Chemical is moving forward with plans to expand its 50,000-metricton-per-year poly α-olefins plant in Baytown, Texas, by 20%. The company expects to complete the project, meant to meet demand for high-performance lubricants, next year. ▸ Dow Chemical has signed an agreement with the Argen-
at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he chaired the department of immunology, and Schering-Plough. His research has led to the development of key drug targets in immunology, alLiu lergy, and oncology, Sanofi says. Liu will report to Elias Zerhouni, Sanofi’s president of global R&D.—RICK MULLIN
START-UPS
▸ Two specialist biotechs step out Iterum Therapeutics is launching with a focus on differentiated anti-infectives. The firm raised $40 million in a first round of venture capital financing and has licensed a compound from what it calls a top-tier multinational company. Iterum’s CEO, Corey Fishman, was an executive with the antibiotics firm Durata Therapeutics, which was sold to Actavis in 2014. Meanwhile, the pain specialist Centrexion Therapeutics just acquired a pipeline of non-opioid pain treatments from Boehringer Ingelheim. Headed by former Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, Centrexion has raised $58 million to date.—MICHAEL MCCOY
tina firm Invap to build a wind farm in Cerro Policía, Argentina. The partners envisage a $123 million, multistage project to erect 20 wind turbines that together put out 50 MW of power. ▸ Asahi Kasei and PeptiDream have agreed to collaborate on the discovery and development of nonstandard peptides, including novel amino acids, that may be effective against multiple targets. Tokyo-based PeptiDream has developed a technology to rapidly generate nonstandard peptide libraries. ▸ Ariad Pharmaceuticals will eliminate about 20% of its workforce, mostly at its Cambridge, Mass., headquar-
ters, as part of a strategic review. About 90 jobs will be cut, leaving the firm with 380 employees. ▸ Roche has won FDA approval for an investigational test to screen blood donations for the Zika virus. The test, which uses nucleic acid extraction followed by PCR detection, will allow Puerto Rico to resume collecting blood donations, FDA says. ▸ Emulate has raised $28 million in a round of financing to support development of its Organs-on-Chips. The technology allows drug researchers to use a silicon chip emulation of organs in lieu of cell culture- and animal-based experimentation.
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