Business Concentrates 3-D PRINTING
▸ Three firms join for PET package recycling Three companies are joining to launch a new technology for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste. The venture links Unilever, a large user of PET packaging; Indorama, the world’s largest producer of PET resin; and Ioniqa, the developer of a PET recycling technology based on ionic liquids. Ioniqa, a spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology and the Dutch Polymer Institute, applies ionic liquids in a magnetic field to separate colors and other additives from PET, leaving a polymer similar to the virgin one made from petroleum. Unilever says the technology will help it reach a goal of making all of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.—MICHAEL MCCOY
FOOD INGREDIENTS
▸ DSM and BASF in nutrition pacts BASF has joined Personalized Nutrition & Health, a consortium founded by the Dutch research institute TNO and Wageningen University & Research to provide personalized nutrition advice to people on a large scale. BASF will share knowledge relating to micronutrients. Separately, DSM has announced a partnership with Mixfit, a firm that will deliver personalized nutrition based on DSM’s vitamins and minerals.—ALEX SCOTT
OUTSOURCING
▸ Drug firms pick contract providers Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has selected Agilent Technologies to manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredient for its RNAi therapeutic patisiran. Patisiran is an oligonucleotide targeting transthyretin for the treatment of the rare disease ATTR amyloidosis. Meanwhile, Scancell Holdings has signed up PolyPeptide Group, a contract manufacturer of therapeutic peptides, to make a peptide conjugate to Amplivant, an immuno-oncology drug Scancell is developing.—RICK MULLIN
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Bigger machines make houses and rockets While most three-dimensional printers are put to work making small parts or prototypes, start-ups are developing techniques to make much larger things, including houses and rockets. Construction technology company Icon and housing nonprofit New Story used a large-format printer to build the concrete foundation and walls of a small, 32.5-m2 house in Austin, Texas. The house was constructed in 48 hours at a cost of about $10,000. Icon says it aims to build houses of up to 75 m2 and to refine the process to make it faster and more affordable. While its first mission is to build affordable housing in developing regions, Icon says its printers could also A close-up of a 3-D-printed be used to make habitats in space. concrete home in Austin, Texas. Icon’s 3-D house printer could someday catch a ride on a 3-D-printed rocket made by another start-up, Relativity Space. The company raised $35 million in a second round of funding led by venture fund Playground Capital. Relativity says it has built the world’s largest 3-D metal printer, which it plans to use to make inexpensive rockets that can carry large payloads, including car-sized satellites.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
INSTRUMENTATION
▸ Agilent seeks to regain spectrometry IP Agilent Technologies has asked the Federal Trade Commission to allow it to license intellectual property (IP) it sold to Bruker in 2010 to gain approval for the purchase of rival scientific instrument maker Varian. The IP, which has to do with spectrometer design, was part of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry business that is now owned by Analytik Jenna. Agilent wants to license the design IP from Jenna and, in return, license design IP to Jenna for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. FTC says it will decide after May 1.—MARC REISCH
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ Charcoal lighter fluid goes green Kingsford, the leading U.S. charcoal brand, is launching a biobased charcoal
lighter based on Green Biologics’ GreenFlame lighter fluid formula. GreenFlame’s main ingredient is n-butanol made from corn at Green Biologics’ fermentation facility in Little Falls, Minn. Green Biologics says its fluid offers less smoke and kerosene smell than petroleum-based fluids.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
BIOLOGICS
▸ Fujifilm buys U.S. cell culture business Fujifilm has agreed to buy California-based Irvine Scientific Sales and its Japanese subsidiary for $800 million. Irvine produces cell culture media—solu-
C R E D I T: I CO N ( H O US E ) ; GR E E N BI O LO GI CS ( LI G H T ER F LU I D )
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