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Business

Business Roundup

May 28, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 22

Cytec Industries plans to sell its coatings resins business by the end of the year with the help of its financial adviser, J.P. Morgan Securities. Cytec earlier said it was considering a sale of the business.

Merck KGaA has acquired an interest in the Israeli firm QLight Nanotech, a spin-off of Hebrew University of Jerusalem that is developing quantum dot technology for lighting and display applications. The two firms entered an R&D agreement in 2009.

Linde will spend $63 million to build facilities supplying nitrogen and other high-purity gases to Samsung Electronics in Suzhou, China. Samsung is building a plant there that will produce large thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays.

W.R. Grace has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qingdao Bureau of Commerce to build its first fluid catalytic cracking catalyst plant in China, in the city of Qingdao. Grace says the facility will enhance its ability to supply catalysts and related products to petroleum refiners in Asia.

Altana’s Elantas electrical insulation unit has acquired the electrical and electronic casting resins business of Italy’s Marbo Group. Altana says it will move production of the resins to its site in Collecchio, Italy.

InterMune will sell its drug Actimmune to Vidara Therapeutics for $55 million in cash and two years of royalties. InterMune licensed the drug, which is a synthesized form of interferon gamma-1b, from Genentech in 1999. Actimmune is used to treat chronic granulomatous disease and severe osteopetrosis.

Codexis and Merck & Co. have extended their biocatalyst and process development collaboration by three years. Partners since 2007, they have developed synthetic routes using Codexis enzymes for some of Merck’s leading drugs, including Januvia and Victrelis.

Lundbeck and CDHI Foundation will jointly develop a targeted therapy for Huntington’s disease. The nonprofit will conduct preclinical studies to understand the effect of a Lundbeck compound on P2X receptors, which are expressed in the neurons and glia of the central nervous system.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has closed a $525 million venture capital fund that will invest in life sciences and green technology companies, among other areas. The fund, known as KPCB 15, will focus on developing promising early-stage firms.

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