Business Concentrates AGRICULTURE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
▸ Harvard settles dispute over dielectrics patent Harvard University says it has come to an “amicable resolution” of a lawsuit it filed last year against semiconductor maker GlobalFoundries for violating a chemistry professor’s patents. The suit involved patents for metal alkylamide-based high-K dielectric films used to create insulating layers in memory chips. The technology was invented by Harvard chemistry professor Roy E. Gordon and members of his lab in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Still pending is a similar suit against chip maker Micron Technology.—MARC
REISCH
POLLUTION
▸ The Ocean Cleanup raises $22 million The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit founded in 2013 by then-17-year-old Boyan Slat, has raised $22 million from Silicon Valley investors including Marc and Lynne Benioff and Peter Thiel. The Dutch chem-
Bayer to divest Liberty Link Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto has received conditional approval from antitrust regulators in South Africa, the first country to rule on the merger. The country is requiring Bayer to divest its Liberty Link brand glufosinate herbicide along with its crop traits for glufosinate O tolerance. Bayer acquiesced to the divestment but O has not announced a buyer. The requirement is not P HO surprising because Bayer and Monsanto sell the two OH most common herbicide and tolerance trait combiNH2 CH3 nations. Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide Roundup and its Roundup Ready crop traits are the world’s Glufosinate leading weed killer and trait combo. South Africa is requiring the buyer of Liberty Link to operate in the country to ensure farmers have access to both technologies. Competition in crop protection products has been a focus of regulators as large agriculture firms consolidate. Last month, DuPont sold much of its crop chemicals business to FMC to gain European approval for its merger with Dow Chemical.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
▸ DSM and Amyris pursue vitamin A DSM will invest $25 million in the biobased chemicals maker Amyris and may follow with another $25 million. At the same time, the two firms will work on health-related products. They have an exclusive agreement to develop a fermentation route to vitamin A, which is normally made via chemical synthesis. If DSM does invest the full $50 million, it will own almost one-quarter of Amyris. Other, unnamed investors have committed an additional $45 million. Amyris will use most of the funds to pay down debt.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
AGRICULTURE
▸ Plant growth firms flourish
Toulouse White Biotechnology. The firm is developing plant-produced “micropeptides” to act as growth stimulators and herbicides.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
PETROCHEMICALS
▸ ExxonMobil will buy aromatics producer ExxonMobil has inked an agreement to purchase Jurong Aromatics, which operates one of the world’s largest aromatics plants in Singapore. Jurong declared bankruptcy in 2015. Earlier this spring, South Korea’s Lotte Chemical dropped out of bidding for the firm. ExxonMobil operates two ethylene crackers and a refinery nearby. The acquisition will almost double its aromatics capacity to 3.5 million metric tons per year, half of which will be the polyester precursor p-xylene.—ALEX TULLO
BIOLOGICS ical firm DSM is also a funder. The nonprofit developed a V-shaped array of long, floating booms designed to trap plastics and other debris carried by ocean currents. It plans to launch a pilot version in the Pacific Ocean later this year. Some marine scientists question how well the array will hold up under harsh ocean conditions.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 15, 2017
▸ Immunomedics drops Seattle Genetics deal Immunomedics has canceled a deal to license its lead product, the antibody-drug conjugate IMMU-132, to Seattle Genetics for $250 million. Immunomedics has instead raised $125 million from institutional investors to pay for the final stages of developing the oncology drug itself and applying for FDA approval. The change of course
CREDIT: THE OCEAN CLEANUP
The Ocean Cleanup aims to capture floating plastic.
Two start-ups are developing technologies to help plants grow by stimulating or regulating their metabolic pathways. Texas Crop Science, a University of Texas spinoff, is working on a plant growth regulator that it says can increase crop productivity. The company’s first round of venture capital, from Five T Investments and Korenvaes Horizon Partners, will fund work on apyrases, enzymes that regulate the concentration of extracellular adenosine triphosphate (eATP). Separately, MicroPEP has joined the French start-up incubator
is part of a settlement with the venture capital firm venBio, which claimed Immunomedics was not realizing the drug’s full potential. Immunomedics founder and chair David M. Goldenberg and his wife, CEO Cynthia Sullivan, are both stepping down.—MICHAEL MCCOY
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
▸ Students won’t sweat the school year Every cloud has a silver lining, and soon, Fruit of the Loom men’s underwear will too. The clothing brand has teamed with Dow Chemical to develop the Dual Defense system to reduce odor and wick away moisture. Dual Defense incorporates Silvadur, a Dow technology that uses polymers to release antimicrobial silver ions. Boxers, briefs, Fruit and unof the Loom dershirts briefs will soon will be availcontain Dow able by back-toantimicrobial school season.—ALEX
CREDIT: FRUIT OF THE LOOM
technology.
TULLO
OUTSOURCING
GENE THERAPY
▸ Sanofi to keep Cepia contract business
▸ Pfizer gets Sangamo hemophilia treatment
The French drugmaker Sanofi says it has decided not to divest Cepia, its contract manufacturing arm. The business produces active pharmaceutical ingredients at 16 Sanofi chemical and biotech sites. It also offers process development services. In the biotech field alone, the business counts more than 280 customers in 62 countries. The decision to keep Cepia is based on its financial improvement and promising prospects, Sanofi says.—ALEX SCOTT
Pfizer has licensed Sangamo Therapeutics’ gene therapy programs for hemophilia A, including SB-525, which is expected to enter the clinic this quarter. Sangamo will get $70 million up front plus milestone payments of up to $300 million. Pfizer is already partnered with Spark Therapeutics on a gene therapy for hemophilia B. Last year Pfizer spent $150 million to acquire Bamboo Therapeutics and its gene therapy manufacturing facility.—MICHAEL MCCOY
INFORMATICS
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ Merck KGaA grabs Grzybowski Scientific
▸ Trade group sets new member criteria
MilliporeSigma, the life sciences division of Merck KGaA, has acquired Grzybowski Scientific Inventions (GSI), the developer of Chematica, a computer-aided system for identifying chemical synthesis pathways. The “virtual synthesis” software reduces the time between chemical target conception and route evaluation by filtering millions of data points to optimize synthesis routes, according to MilliporeSigma. GSI, which launched in 2013, markets Chematica to academic and industrial labs.—RICK
The board of the trade association Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America has approved new criteria for membership that emphasizes R&D. The group also eliminated the “associate” category of membership. It now requires all members to have, on average over three years, an R&D-to-sales ratio of 10% or greater and R&D spending of at least $200 million per year. As a result, 22 companies—several of which have been criticized for their drug pricing practices—are no longer members.—MICHAEL MCCOY
MULLIN
Business Roundup
compounds, and scale them up to kilogram quantities.
▸ GFS Chemicals has upgraded the distillation equipment at its nitric acid plant in Columbus, Ohio. The company says the project will yield a higher-purity reagent-grade nitric acid for commercial customers as well as its own nitrate salts.
▸ Jubilant Life Sciences, an Indian drug services provider, has acquired the U.S. radiopharmacy firm Triad Isotopes. With sales of $225 million in 2016, Triad supplies radiopharmaceuticals to about 1,700 customers across the U.S., Jubilant says.
▸ Saudi Basic Industries’ venture capital arm has invested in Airborne International, a Dutch specialist in automated and digitized composites manufacturing. The companies say the money will help advance Airborne’s technology in aerospace, marine, and other markets.
▸ Givaudan is working with 19-year-old French inventor Guillaume Rolland to develop Sensorwake, an alarm clock that uses scent—not sound— to wake people. Givaudan has developed seven morning fragrances for Sensorwake: hot croissant, buttered toast, fresh coffee, the seaside, chocolate, cut grass, and mint. ▸ Versum Materials, Air Products’ former electronic chemicals business, has broken ground on a research facility in Hometown, Pa. The facility will employ about 30 people who will evaluate new materials, such as organometallic
▸ Regulus Therapeutics, a developer of oligonucleotide drugs that target microRNAs, is eliminating 30% of its staff, or about 30 people, to focus on its most promising programs. Last year, FDA halted trials of the firm’s lead product, a hepatitis C treatment, following adverse patient reactions.
▸ Takeda Pharmaceutical and Abingworth, the owner of the British drug firm GammaDelta Therapeutics, will together invest $100 million in GammaDelta. Takeda will also get an option to buy the company. GammaDelta is developing T-cell-based cancer immunotherapies. ▸ Exscientia, a developer of computer-aided drug discovery products, will work with Sanofi in the area of metabolic disease. Exscientia will be responsible for compound design; Sanofi will handle actual chemical synthesis and development. The deal could yield $272 million for Exscientia.
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