Business Roundup

BASF has begun construction on a $13 million crystallizer at its caprolactam plant in Freeport, Texas. A joint undertaking with BASF customer American Plant Food, the two-year project will increase the quantity and quality of ammonium sulfate fertilizer granules that are a by-product of making caprolactam, a nylon precursor.

Huntsman Corp. has agreed to acquire DuPont's global fluorochemicals business for nonwoven textiles applications. The business' products, sold as Zonyl, are used to repel water, alcohol, and oil-based fluids. The two companies also will form a joint development agreement to bring innovations to the nonwoven textiles market.

Cabot and joint venture partner Shanghai Coking Chemical will invest $65 million to increase carbon black production at their Tianjin, China, site to 250,000 metric tons per year. The expansion should be completed by the fall of 2008.

Degussa will spend $6.6 million to expand its Janesville, Wis., facility, which produces specialty chemicals used in personal care products. To be completed later this summer, the project includes a new plant for emollient esters and a facility to make a pastille form of a hair conditioner ingredient.

BioLineRx, an Israeli drug development firm, has licensed BL-4030, a small molecule designed to induce cell death in tumors by activating a protein called procaspase 3, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Paul J. Hergenrother, associate professor of chemistry, developed the compound.

Summit, formerly the U.K. biotech company Vastox, has signed a deal with Switzerland's Evolva Biotech to develop new drugs for infectious diseases. The partners will spend $10 million over three years to develop Summit's immunomodulator drug candidate SMT14400 and backup compounds from Summit's imino sugar library.

Shin-Etsu Chemical is spending $17 million to build new facilities for rare-earth separation and refinement in Fukui prefecture in central Japan. The company says demand is booming for rare-earth magnets, made of neodymium in particular, used to make motors for air conditioners and hybrid cars.

Solutia's Flexsys subsidiary has acquired Chemetall's business in zinc dithiocarbamates, which are used to speed up the rubber vulcanization process. Flexsys already produces the dithiocarbamates, so no production assets are involved in the deal.

Eastman Chemical has begun preliminary engineering to expand capacity for cellulose triacetate film in Kingsport, Tenn., by mid-2009. The new capacity will meet demand for polarizing films used in liquid-crystal displays.

BioXell, a 2002 spin-off from Roche, will regain rights to its TREM platform, which offers potential treatment for sepsis, from partner Merck & Co., following Merck's decision to focus on other therapeutic areas. BioXell says it will seek another partner for the TREM platform.