Business Roundup

Air Products & Chemicals has acquired air separation and gas liquefaction units in Guiyang, in China’s Guizhou province. The company bought the assets from Guizhou Kaiyang Chemical, which produces ammonia from coal at the same site. Air Products will use the assets to supply both Kaiyang and the Guizhou merchant market.

Momentive Specialty Chemicals will build a plant in Chonburi, Thailand, that will triple its capacity to produce acrylic-based coatings resins in Southeast Asia. A smaller facility in Samutsakorn, Thailand, will close after the new plant opens in the first half of 2013.

PPG Industries will increase precipitated silica capacity at its Lake Charles, La., plant by more than 22,000 tons per year. PPG says the move follows an earlier project to boost silica capacity in Lake Charles and Delfzijl, the Netherlands, by more than 18,000 tons.

Clariant has spent more than $10 million to expand production of C₆ fluorochemicals at its plant in Gendorf, Germany. The firm says the products will support customers that are making the switch from perfluorooctanoic acid-based products in textile waterproofing applications.

CureVac of Tübingen, Germany, has raised roughly $105 million from its main investor, Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, to support the development of mRNA-based therapies and vaccines. The funding, one of the largest amounts ever raised for a private European biotech firm, will be used to advance CureVac’s cancer vaccines.

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics and Pulmatrix will work together to develop Pulmatrix’ PUR118 as a treatment for cystic fibrosis. Pulmatrix gains $1.4 million up front and milestone-based funding to support a Phase Ib study of the drug, which is currently in Phase Ib studies for treatment of a different lung disease.

Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici has acquired a stake in Areta International, an Italian contract biotechnology company. FIS, an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) producer with a large portfolio of generic products, acquired Delmar Chemicals, a Montreal-based API producer, last year.

Life Technologies and Bristol-Myers Squibb will collaborate on projects to develop companion diagnostics for BMS drugs. The agreement covers an initial project in oncology and provides for future projects involving a range of therapeutic areas and Life Technologies instruments.