Business Concentrates as facility in 2014 and the Billingham plant in 2011.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
BIOTECHNOLOGY
▸ Troubled Nivalis to merge with Alpine Privately held Alpine Immune Sciences will merge with publicly traded Nivalis Therapeutics in an all-stock deal. In advance of the deal closing, three venture capital firms—Frazier Healthcare Partners, Alpine BioVentures, and OrbiMed Advisors—will put $17 million into Alpine. The combined company will retain Alpine’s name and have nearly $90 million in cash. Nivalis has been winding down R&D after the failure in November of a Phase II trial of its cystic fibrosis treatment cavosonstat. Alpine uses directed evolution to create protein-based therapies that can modulate immune response.—LISA JARVIS
START-UPS
▸ Breakout Labs funds four firms Breakout Labs has invested in four early-stage human health companies. Envisagenics is a bioinformatics spin-off from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory that ana-
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lyzes transcriptomic data to discover genes affected by splicing errors in cancer and genetic diseases. Gel4Med, out of the Harvard Innovation Lab, engineers biomaterials for tissue healing. LogicInk makes temporary tattoos that convey health information through changes in shape and color. And SciBac targets antibiotic-resistant diseases while fortifying the microbiome. Breakout Labs, the Thiel Foundation’s seed fund, has backed 34 firms since 2012.—ANN THAYER
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
▸ Lilly, Incyte reel from FDA rejection In a surprise move, FDA has rejected the arthritis treatment baricitinib, developed by Eli Lilly & Co. and Incyte. Shares of Lilly O S O and Incyte were down 5% and 11%, respecN tively, on the first day of trading after the news was announced. NC N N In a response letter, FDA asked the companies for more clinical N and safety data on baricitinib, a once-daily N N oral JAK inhibitor. The H extra data could take Baricitinib the companies a year or more to supply, delaying the launch of what was anticipated to be a multi-billiondollar-per-year drug.—LISA JARVIS
NANOMEDICINES
▸ Novartis licenses diabetes treatment Novartis has licensed rights to a type 1 diabetes drug being developed by Parvus Therapeutics, which makes nanomedicines to halt or reverse autoimmune diseases. Parvus’s diabetes products, called T1D Navacims, are formed by conjugating iron oxide nanoparticles with copies of a peptide derived from a pancreatic autoantigen. Navacims reprogram pathogenic T cells into beneficial cells that suppress autoimmune-disease-causing immune cells.—MICHAEL MCCOY
GENE THERAPY
▸ CRISPR, Casebia link with StrideBio CRISPR Therapeutics and Casebia Therapeutics are working with StrideBio to find adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for in vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based therapies. Casebia is a joint venture between CRISPR Therapeutics and Bayer. StrideBio will use its structure-guided evolution methods to develop AAV vectors with improved tissue specificity and reduced susceptibility to immune responses. Its technology comes from the work of Aravind Asokan at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Mavis Agbandje-McKenna at the University of Florida.—ANN THAYER
Business Roundup
and pharmaceutical package testing markets.
▸ Indorama will acquire Glanzstoff Group, a Luxembourg-based producer of tire cord materials made from rayon, aramid, nylon 6,6, and polyester. Indorama, the world’s largest producer of polyethylene terephthalate, entered the tire cord market in 2014.
▸ Merck KGaA is leading a European project to develop materials and device architectures for high-performance, hyperfluorescent organic light-emitting diodes for displays and solid-state lighting. The project will receive $4.3 million from the European Union.
▸ WeylChem, a custom manufacturer of chemical intermediates, will spend more than $13 million this year to expand and upgrade its facility in Elgin, S.C. The investment is being spurred by a new, long-term toll manufacturing project, WeylChem says.
▸ Momentive Performance Materials has opened a $3.5 million, 1,900-m2 research center in Charlotte, N.C. There the company will test ingredients for tires, including its NXT silane products for low-rolling-resistance tires.
▸ Ametek will acquire Mocon, a maker of lab and field gas analysis instruments, for $182 million. Mocon, which had 2016 sales of $63 million, will expand Ametek’s gas instrumentation business into the food
▸ Pfizer will work with China’s HitGen to build and screen DNA-encoded small-molecule libraries for use in drug discovery. Pfizer says it will apply its parallel medicinal chemistry expertise to develop the libraries.
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | APRIL 24, 2017
▸ Cobra Biologics will spend $19 million to expand manufacturing capacity for gene therapy and immunotherapy products in the U.K. and Sweden. The firm expects the investment will create up to 50 jobs, raising its workforce to 135. ▸ Lyndra, a drug delivery technology start-up founded by Robert Langer, has raised $23 million in a series A funding round. The company is developing ultra-long-acting, sustained-release oral-dosage forms of small-molecule and peptide drugs as a means of improving therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects.
