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Business

Business Roundup

July 30, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 31

Evonik Industries will invest up to $120 million in Pangaea Ventures Fund III. The North American venture capital fund will give the German chemical company access to start-up firms focused on advanced materials and specialty chemicals. Mitsubishi Chemical and Saudi Basic Industries are also investors in the fund.

Celanese and Indonesian state energy company Pertamina will cooperate on building ethanol plants in Indonesia that use Celanese’s TCX technology, which derives ethanol from synthesis gas. Celanese is starting up a demonstration plant for the technology in Texas and is planning larger facilities in China.

Evonik Industries plans to expand capacity for triallyl cyanurate (TAC) and triallyl isocyanurate (TAICROS), cross-linking additives used to make plastics and rubbers, at its plant in Wesseling, Germany. The company will spend low-double-digit millions of dollars on the project. TAC and TAICROS are used in the production of films for encapsulating photovoltaic cells.

Croda has acquired Istituto di Ricerche Biotechnologiche, an Italian plant cell culture firm, for close to $10 million. IRB had around $2 million in 2011 sales of plant stem cells and extracts. Croda plans to integrate the firm into its Sederma skin care actives business.

BASF plans to make a double-digit million-dollar investment in its automotive emissions catalyst plant in Nienburg, Germany. Most of the funds will go to expanding capacity for catalyzed soot filters and selective catalytic reduction catalysts for diesel engines.

Versalis has tentatively agreed to build synthetic rubber facilities within the $19 billion RAPID refinery and petrochemical complex that Petronas is promoting in Malaysia. The Italian firm joins BASF, Thailand’s PTT, and Itochu of Japan in considering plants at RAPID.

CoDa Therapeutics has raised $20 million from Rusnano, bringing its second investment round to $40 million. Some of the financing will fund clinical trials of Nexagon, a wound-healing drug. Rusnano’s investment is its first under a $760 million investment partnership it formed in March with Domain Associates.

Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired Funxional Therapeutics’ FX125L compound and the firm’s somatotaxin program. The Cambridge, England-based firm’s small molecules are in development for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases.

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