Business Roundup

DSM and Roquette have formed an equally owned joint venture, called Reverdia, to develop biobased succinic acid. The two companies started cooperating on succinic acid in early 2008 and now make it at a demonstration facility in Lestrem, France.

DuPont and the sanitation firm Ecolab are joining to commercialize new antimicrobial coating technologies for the food and beverage processing industry. The companies are targeting the control of mold and pathogenic bacteria, especially Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, in food facilities.

Kemira has launched an R&D cooperation with the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. The goal of the two-year project is to design a more efficient process for producing drinking water from wastewater.

Lanxess will expand capacity in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, for its Mesamoll brand plasticizers. The project, costing close to $10 million, will raise capacity by 40% by the end of the year, the firm says. Marketed as alternatives to phthalates, Mesamoll products are alkanesulfonic acid esters.

BASF is canceling plans to build an antioxidant-blend plant in the Middle East with the Saudi Arabian firm Astra Polymer Compounding. The joint venture was launched by Ciba, which BASF acquired last year. BASF says it now has other options to build such a plant.

Aptuit has acquired GlaxoSmithKline’s Medicines Research Centre, in Verona, Italy, effective July 1. Under the agreement, the facility’s approximately 500 staffers will transfer to Aptuit from GSK. Aptuit, a pharmaceutical services company, will supply GSK with R&D services from the facility.

SV Life Sciences has closed its fifth venture capital fund with commitments of $523 million. SVLS Fund V, for which the group had targeted $400 million, brings the total funds under management to more than $2 billion.

Thomas Swan & Co., a U.K. specialty chemical firm, will sell carbon nanotubes to U.S.-based Vendum Batteries under a long-term exclusive supply agreement. In late May, Swan began producing single-walled nanotubes at a new plant that can make 50 kg per month. It is building a second, identical plant.

Merck & Co. will collaborate with Adcock Ingram, a South African drug distribution firm, to copromote and distribute Merck products, including over-the-counter and prescription drugs, in South Africa. Merck expects emerging markets to account for 25% of its drug and vaccine sales by 2013.