It plans to file a New Drug Application with FDA by the end of 2019.—MICHAEL
MCCOY
FOOD INGREDIENTS
EMPLOYMENT
▸ Solution advances for acrylamide problem
▸ Drugmakers cut jobs
HYDROGEN POWER
▸ Fuel-cell vehicles advance in Japan Air Liquide and 10 Japanese companies, including Toyota, plan to build 160 hydrogen stations and put 40,000 fuel-cell vehicles on Japan’s roads by 2020. The 11 companies aim
Air Liquide and partners will add hydrogen fueling stations in Japan. to set up a joint venture this year that will start building hydrogen stations and promote the use of fuel-cell vehicles in Japan. The plan conforms to a government energy diversification road map, developed in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, for hydrogen fuel-cell use in Japan. Air Liquide is involved in similar projects in the U.S. and Europe.—JEAN-
FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
Orkla Food Ingredients has licensed yeast from Canada’s Renaissance BioScience that reduces acrylamide content in food. When starchy foods are heated to more than 120 °C, naturally occurring asparagine turns into acrylamide, a carcinogen. The yeast, when used in baking or as an additive, consumes asparagine, reducing acrylamide formation by up to 95%, Renaissance says. Orkla will market the yeast, which is not yet commercial, in Europe.—MICHAEL MCCOY
SCOTT
OUTSOURCING
▸ JSR will expand biotech manufacturing KBI Biopharma, a subsidiary of Japan’s JSR, will spend $30 million to expand biotech drug manufacturing capacity at two U.S. sites. In Durham, N.C., KBI will add two commercial-scale, single-use mammalian cell bioreactors to complement its clinical-scale reactors. In Boulder, Colo., it will add small-scale microbial fermentation capacity to complement larger-scale equipment. KBI also plans to open a biotech analytical services lab at JSR’s electronic materials facility in Leuven, Belgium.—MICHAEL MCCOY
Business Roundup
CREDIT: AIR LIQUIDE
▸ Covestro has named Markus Steilemann, currently chief commercial officer, as its next CEO. He will replace Patrick Thomas upon the completion of Thomas’s contract in September 2018. Thomas will have led Covestro, formerly Bayer’s plastics business, for 10 years. ▸ Ineos has agreed to buy the oil and gas firm Dong Energy, the biggest private company operating in the North Sea, for $1.05 billion and another $250 million subject to certain conditions. Dong produces about 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Novartis will cut 250 positions in the U.S., most of them in East Hanover, N.J. In addition, the drug company plans 500 job cuts or relocations at its Basel, Switzerland, headquarters during the next 18 months. The jobs are associated with coordination, development, and production. But the firm says it will also add 350 Swiss posts, mostly across its biotech activities. Meanwhile, Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will close a plant in Gödöllő, on the outskirts of Budapest, if it can’t sell it. The facility employs 500 people.—ALEX
▸ Hexion is expanding a research facility in Edmonton, Alberta, to develop lignin and other biobased raw materials as substitutes for phenol in wood adhesives. To be completed by the end of September, the facility will include a wood panel-board press line to test new adhesive formulations. ▸ ONL Therapeutics has raised $4.25 million in its first formal round of financing, adding to a recent $1 million grant from the National Eye Institute. The University of Michigan spin-off will use the funds to support the
BIOLOGICS
▸ Bioverativ buys rare blood disease firm Seeking to become a leader in treating blood disorders, Bioverativ will pay $400 million up front to acquire privately held True North Therapeutics. Bioverativ, a Biogen spin-off, adds to its portfolio TNT009, a monoclonal antibody in early-stage studies for cold agglutinin disease, a rare form of anemia that occurs when autoantibodies attack red blood cells. True North investors could see another $425 million in milestone payments if TNT009 reaches the market.—LISA JARVIS
preclinical development of ONL1204, a Fas inhibitor for the treatment of retinal detachment. ▸ Novozymes will spend $36 million to expand its enzymes facility in Blair, Neb. The facility serves customers in the animal nutrition, agriculture, and biofuels industries. Nebraska is the number two U.S. ethanol producer after Iowa. ▸ Merck & Co. has licensed from Teijin Pharma a preclinical antibody targeting the protein tau, which is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Earlier this year Merck halted trials of verubecestat, a small molecule that treats Alzhei-
mer’s by targeting amyloid plaques in the brain. ▸ W.R. Grace has added a current Good Manufacturing Practices-compliant kilogram-scale suite at its facility in Albany, Ore. Grace says the lab will serve drug industry customers seeking cGMP starting materials and advanced intermediates. ▸ John Wiley & Sons will link its ChemPlanner cheminformatics technology to reaction and other chemical information from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. The partners say the collaboration will accelerate the evolution of predictive chemical synthesis.
MAY 29, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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