SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
▸ Huntsman spin-off to include textiles Huntsman Corp. plans to include its textile effects business as part of the spin-off to shareholders of its titanium dioxide operations. Speaking to analysts during a review of Huntsman’s second-quarter earnings, CEO Peter Huntsman said the textile dyes and chemicals operation, which the firm bought from Ciba Specialty Chemicals in 2006, would “stabilize the earning cyclicality of TiO2” in the new entity. The combined operation, which had $2.9 billion in sales over the past 12 months—about 25% from textile effects—could be ready to be spun off at the end of this year or early in 2017, Huntsman said.—MARC REISCH
lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment. The Japanese firm will also put up $30 million to fund development of Cytokinetics’ CK-2127107 for ALS. Astellas had already licensed the compound for other muscle diseases.—MICHAEL MCCOY
EMPLOYMENT
▸ Lilly’s Lechleiter to retire John C. Lechleiter will step down as president and CEO of Eli Lilly & Co. at the end of the year. Replacing him will be longtime Lilly executive David A. Ricks, who currently heads Lilly Bio-Medicines. Lechleiter, an or-
▸ J&J opiates unit goes to SK Capital
The Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma has expanded its collaboration with Cytokinetics, a biotech firm focused on muscle activators. Astellas H will pay $65 million N N for an option to comO mercialize tirasemtiv, N N a skeletal muscle activator now in a Phase III clinical trial as an amyotrophic Tirasemtiv
Lechleiter
Ricks
ganic chemist, joined Lilly in 1979 in its process research labs and moved up the ranks. He became CEO in 2008, when patent expirations on nearly all of Lilly’s key products loomed. Although Lechleiter helped the company mitigate some of the revenue loss by expanding in areas such as animal health, his tenure as CEO was marred by a string of drug pipeline setbacks.—LISA JARVIS
Business Roundup
CREDIT: ELI LILLY & CO. (LECHLEITER, RICKS)
Britain’s decision to exit the European Union isn’t stopping GlaxoSmithKline from deciding to invest more than $350 million at three of its U.K. sites to boost production of new respiratory therapies and biologic medicines. GSK, which employs about 6,000 at nine U.K. manufacturing locations, will expand in Barnard Castle in County Durham, England; Montrose in Angus, Scotland; and Ware in Hertfordshire, England. The company says most of the products will be exported around the world.—RICK
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
▸ Astellas boosts Cytokinetics pact
▸ Sumitomo Chemical will build a 3,000-metric-ton-peryear polyethersulfone plant in Chiba, Japan, the company’s second such facility at the
▸ GSK to invest in three U.K. facilities
MULLIN
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
▸ Mitsubishi Chemical will sell its Chinese purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant to Union King Holdings and its Indian PTA plant to Chatterjee Management Co. Combined annual sales of the businesses exceed $1 billion. The Japanese firm will keep PTA plants in Indonesia and South Korea.
PHARMACEUTICALS
site. Polyethersulfone is a high-end engineering plastic used in applications such as carbon fiber-epoxy airplane parts. ▸ DyStar, a dyes producer, will build a 3,000-m2 R&D center at its site in Nanjing, China. Expected to open in March 2017, the facility will study new molecules and develop chemicals for use in textiles and other industries. ▸ Dow Chemical researcher Abhishek Roy will receive the
SK Capital has acquired Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids and named Matthew Martin, previously the firms’ general manager, as the two firms’ CEO. SK Capital, a private investment firm, bought the companies from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals division. Noramco is an opiates manufacturer, and Tasmanian Alkaloids is its raw materials subsidiary. The businesses, which include plants in Wilmington, Del., and Westbury, Australia, are reported to be valued at some $800 million.—RICK MULLIN
Society of Chemical Industry, America Section, Gordon E. Moore Medal in Philadelphia on Sept. 16. The medal, which recognizes young innovators, goes to Roy as the primary inventor of energy-saving Filmtec Eco reverse-osmosis membranes for water purification. ▸ Just Biotherapeutics has completed a $14 million Series A2 funding round led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and including Merck & Co., Lilly Asia Ventures, and Arch Venture Partners. Founded in 2014, Just seeks to lower the cost of biologic drug production.
▸ X-Chem and AbbVie have teamed up to use X-Chem’s DNA-encoded library, which includes more than 120 billion compounds, to find drug candidates against oncology and immunology targets. AbbVie is the latest partner for X-Chem, which was formed in 2009 by former executives of Praecis Pharmaceuticals. ▸ Pfizer has prevailed in its bid to acquire Bind Therapeutics, agreeing to pay $40 million in a court-authorized auction. Bind, a drug development company focused on cancer, filed for bankruptcy in May.
AUGUST 1, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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