Business Roundup

Tate & Lyle plans to close its citric acid plant in Selby, Yorkshire, England. The food ingredients company blames intense Chinese competition and high raw material costs for the action, which will affect 100 jobs at the site.

Asahi Kasei has started an acrylonitrile plant in South Korea that it says is the world's first to use propane as a feedstock. The 70,000-metric-ton-per-year plant was converted from an older facility making use of propylene as feedstock.

Kemira has sold its 50% share in Kemira Arab Potash Co. to Arab Potash Co. The deal ends Kemira's involvement in the fertilizer business, a relic of its former status as a Finnish-owned company charged with ensuring national self-sufficiency in fertilizers.

SOL, an Italian industrial gases producer, will build a $20 million industrial and medicinal gases plant in Industriepark Höchst, in Frankfurt, Germany. SOL will build the facility, and site operator Infraserv will supply raw materials and infrastructure.

Pfizer has agreed to acquire BioRexis Pharmaceutical, a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a number of diabetes drug candidates and a novel technology platform for developing new protein drugs. Pfizer says the technology, based on human transferrin, yields therapeutics with improved duration of action.

Lyondell Chemical will spend $20 million to expand capacity for ultrafine titanium dioxide at its plant in Thann, France. Ultrafine TiO₂ is used in a variety of catalytic applications.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has licensed to AstraZeneca its VelocImmune technology for human monoclonal antibody drug discovery. AstraZeneca will pay $20 million up front and make up to five additional annual payments of $20 million.