Business Roundup

ExxonMobil Chemical will build a market development facility in Pensacola, Fla., for a dynamically vulcanized alloy of nylon and its Exxpro elastomers. ExxonMobil says tire inner liners made with the new elastomer can be one-fifth the thickness of conventional halobutyl-based liners.

Braskem is evaluating the construction of a 200,000-metric-ton-per-year plant that would convert sugarcane-derived ethanol into ethylene for polymerization into "green" polyethylene. The Brazilian firm disclosed earlier that it was building a pilot-scale ethanol-to-ethylene plant (C&EN, April 9, page 24).

DuPont has taken legal action in four countries against local companies that it says are infringing its patents for the hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants Suva 407C and 410A. It has already settled with a Chinese equipment manufacturer in one of the cases.

Degussa's owner, the German conglomerate RAG, will go public next spring under a plan recently approved by the German government. Government officials rejected a takeover offer from the private equity firm Cerberus valued at up to $10 billion.

Solvay Solexis, the fluoromaterials arm of Solvay, is collaborating with Norway's Thin Film Electronics to develop materials for printed electronics. The companies intend to develop ferroelectric polymers and related ink formulations.

Altana, the German specialty chemicals maker, has acquired the effects pigments business of the U.K.'s Wolstenholme Group for $39 million. The business makes bronze and aluminum pigments and inks based on them. It had sales last year of about $32 million.

Bayer has licensed rights outside the U.S. to ZymoGenetics' recombinant human thrombin, a blood-clotting factor used to control bleeding during surgery. ZymoGenetics gets a $30 million up-front payment and could get another $40 million if rThrombin gains FDA approval in October.

Bachem, the Swiss contract manufacturer, is buying Clinalfa, a unit of Germany's Merck Biosciences that offers research quantities of peptides and other biologically active products. Bachem says the purchase broadens its portfolio of finished dosage forms for clinical trials.

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals is eliminating 32 jobs, about 5% of its workforce, in a restructuring move. CuraGen, meanwhile, is letting go 40 employees, almost half of its staff, by closing a pilot plant in Branford, Conn.