it is offering the current staff of about 100 an opportunity to continue working at the site.—RICK MULLIN
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
▸ Nippon Shokubai invests in APIs
rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and more. A second program for inhibitors of STING (stimulator of interferon genes) could help prevent innate immune system activation in autoimmune diseases like lupus. The pact gives Celgene the option to acquire the Nimbus programs.—RYAN CROSS
INFORMATICS Nippon Shokubai is entering the business of producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for peptide and nucleic acid drugs. The company will build a plant in Suita, Japan, where it opened an API synthesis lab last year. The facility will be able to produce APIs in quantities ranging from milligrams to kilograms. Nippon Shokubai, best known as the world’s largest producer of superabsorbent polymers used in diapers and sanitary pads, has a strategy to expand in the medical field over the next three years.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
DRUG DISCOVERY
▸ Nimbus, Celgene form autoimmune pact
▸ Evotec invests $18 million in Exscientia The German contract research firm Evotec is expanding a partnership with the AIbased drug discoverer Exscientia and acquiring an $18 million stake in the company. Evotec’s collaboration with the British firm began 18 months ago to design immuno-oncology drugs that purposefully bind two targets. Evotec CEO Werner Lanthaler liked what he saw. The new deal makes the two firms 50:50 partners on their drug discovery program, Lanthaler says, adding that it is unlikely Evotec would take a compound to the clinic alone.—RYAN CROSS
POLYMERS Celgene and the computational chemistry company Nimbus Therapeutics are teaming up to advance R&D on small molecules that could treat a suite of immunology conditions. One Nimbus program is designing inhibitors of the inflammation-linked enzyme Tyk2, which has applications in
▸ Eastman plastic is sitting pretty The Japanese furniture maker Kawajun is using Eastman Chemical’s Tritan copoly-
Business Roundup
C R E D I T: EASTM A N C HE M ICA L
▸ Bayer has ceded control of Covestro, its former plastics business, after selling an additional 6.9% stake in the firm. The sale, which raised $1.2 billion, reduces Bayer’s stake in Covestro to 24.6%. ▸ Stamicarbon, a Dutch urea technology licensor, has invested $5.5 million in the U.S. start-up Pursell AgriTech. Pursell is developing a low-cost coating for controlled-release fertilizers. ▸ Delaware Innovation Space, a business incubator set up by DowDuPont, the
University of Delaware, and the State of Delaware, has received a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The award will help adapt a research building at DowDuPont’s Experimental Station to support small-business innovations. ▸ Lanxess will cease production of lubricant precursors in Ankerweg, the Netherlands, by November 2018. Part of Lanxess’s Chemtura acquisition, the site is operated by a staff of 100. ▸ Kemira and China’s
Eastman says its Tritan resin lends to the new chairs’ crystal appearance. ester in a new line of chairs, called Luxtiera, that are characterized by a molded diamond pattern. Nanae Imbe, a Kawajun designer, says the chair design was too demanding for polypropylene. Polymethyl methacrylate didn’t provide the desired toughness, and polycarbonate lacked needed chemical resistance.—MICHAEL MCCOY
START-UPS
▸ CRISPR-focused KSQ launches KSQ Therapeutics has emerged from stealth mode with $76 million in funding from Polaris Partners to use the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to crack open a swath of new drug targets. Building on the work of its academic cofounders—David Sabatini and Tim Wang from MIT; William Hahn from Broad Institute; and Jonathan Weissman from the University of California, San Francisco—KSQ has developed a high-throughput method of using CRISPR to probe gene function. The biotech firm, which already has 40 employees, will initially focus on oncology and immunology drugs.—LISA JARVIS
Tiancheng Wanfeng Chemical Technology are forming an $80 million joint venture that will combine their fatty acid chloride and alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) wax businesses in Yanzhou, China. Made from fatty acid chloride, AKD helps paper resist liquid absorption. ▸ Avara Pharmaceutical Services has agreed to acquire a GlaxoSmithKline plant in Aiken, S.C., that makes solid-dose, over-the-counter drugs. Solid-dose capabilities are in high demand in the U.S., according to Avara. ▸ Wacker Chemie will build a spray dryer and an additional reactor for vinyl
acetate-ethylene copolymer-based powder dispersions in Ulsan, South Korea. The $94 million project will double the site’s capacity for the dispersions, used to make construction mortar. ▸ Arbutus Biopharma has received $116 million from Roivant Sciences, an investment vehicle founded by Vivek Ramaswamy. Arbutus will use the funds to further develop its hepatitis B virus treatments and RNA-based drug delivery technology. Ramaswamy was an early investor in OnCore Biopharma, which merged with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals to form Arbutus.
OCTOBER 9, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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