Business Roundup

Air Products & Chemicals and the Arabian Co. for Power & Water Development have agreed to form a joint venture, ACWA Air Products Arabia, with headquarters in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The venture will pursue large-scale industrial gas development in Saudi Arabia.

BASF has reached an agreement to acquire parts of the toluene diisocyanate business of Poland’s Ciech. The deal, which is expected to close by March 2013, does not include Ciech’s 75,000-metric-ton-per-year TDI unit.

SABIC Ventures has led a $5 million investment in Vitriflex, a Milpitas, Calif.-based developer of barrier films for solar panels and flexible electronics. SABIC Ventures is the venture capital arm of Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

PPG Industries has agreed to purchase Spraylat, a Pelham, N.Y.-based maker of industrial coatings. Spraylat, which focuses on liquid and powder coatings, had sales of $125 million in 2011 and operates plants in the U.S., Europe, and China.

Agilent Technologies will provide instruments valued at more than $1 million to help scientists at the University of Houston’s department of earth and atmospheric sciences better understand the geology and composition of crude oil. The scientists will also look into environmentally friendly methods of extracting shale oil and gas.

Ashland’s specialty ingredients division has opened a technical center in Mumbai to support customers in India and Southeast Asia. The center will provide technical support to companies that are developing new personal care products.

Takeda Pharmaceutical will pay $60 million to acquire Bozeman, Mont.-based LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals. Takeda gains a vaccine in Phase I/II trials to prevent norovirus, a common cause of foodborne illness. LigoCyte uses viruslike particle technology to produce vaccines that can address several strains of a virus.

Pharmacyclics has received a third $50 million milestone payment in its cancer drug development partnership with Janssen Pharmaceutical. The payment was triggered by the enrollment of a fifth patient in a Phase III clinical trial of a treatment for leukemia.