Business Roundup Letter

Lanxess has acquired Clariant’s business in p-tert-amylphenol, a disinfectant active ingredient. Lanxess will market the ingredient alone or in combination with two existing disinfectants, o-phenylphenol and chlorophen.

ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum have advanced plans to build a petrochemical complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, by 2015. The complex will have 1.6 million metric tons of ethylene capacity, plus downstream polyethylene and ethylene glycol plants.

Albemarle has started up a 15,000-metric-ton-per-year plant at its Pasadena, Texas, site to make poly(α-olefins), used as lubricant base stock, under contract for ExxonMobil Chemical. Albemarle says the plant uses new and existing equipment and took only two years to complete after the initial feasibility study phase.

BASF has sold its Aurora special-effects films business to Peekskill, N.Y.-based RMS Packaging. Under terms of the agreement, BASF is selling manufacturing equipment and will lease a building at the site, where it also makes pigments, to RMS. The films are used in packaging and gift wrap.

Kyowa Hakko Kirin of Japan will pay $4 million up front as part of a drug discovery pact with Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, which uses siRNA strands containing more than the typical 21 nucleotides to knock out gene function. Dicerna could snag another $120 million in research funding and milestone payments as the partners develop drugs against oncology targets.

Roche will work with Evolva Holding to design oncology and anti-infective compounds. Evolva receives an undisclosed technology access fee and research funding in exchange for opening up its biosynthetic chemistry technology, which improves upon compound scaffolds found in nature.

Cleveland BioLabs has formed a 50-50 joint venture called Incuron with Bioprocess Capital Ventures, a Russian venture capital fund. This joint venture will develop Cleveland BioLabs’ Curaxin compounds for cancer treatment. Bioprocess Capital Ventures will potentially contribute $18 million, with an up-front payment of $5.8 million.

H. Lundbeck, a Danish drug firm, says the European Commission is investigating the company for anticompetitive practices related to the generic antidepressant citalopram. The company says it is cooperating with the investigation and is confident that it has complied with all the relevant laws.

QLT has paid Othera Pharmaceuticals $7.5 million up front for the rights to OT-730, a pro­drug of a beta blocker. It’s currently in studies to treat glaucoma. Early-stage clinical trials have shown that the drug can be safely given as an eye drop and is about as effective as the beta-adrenergic-receptor blocker timolol.