Business Roundup

ShinEtsu Chemical has acquired General Electric’s share in their Asia Silicones Monomer joint venture for about $150 million. Established in 2001, the Thai venture produces raw materials for silicones. GE largely exited the silicones business in 2006 but maintained its share in the venture.

Solvay is shuttering a nylon 6,6 line at its site in Saint-Fons, France, because of poor market conditions for the polymer. Last month, the company announced plans to add capacity for the specialty polymer nylon 6,10 at the site.

Eastman Chemical will invest $1.6 billion at its headquarters in Kings­port, Tenn., over the next seven years. The company says it will spend on safety and environmental projects, increased warehouse capacity, building renovation, and expansion of its corporate campus. About 300 jobs will be added.

A. Schulman is launching a new round of cost cutting at its European operations that will include job reductions. Separately, the polymer compounding company wants to sell its Australian rotational compounding business, which had sales of $25 million last year.

Dow Chemical will use the bulk of its $2.2 billion damage award from Petrochemical Industries Co. of Kuwait to pay down nearly $2 billion in debt. The company says the move will save it more than $100 million annually in interest payments.

Croda has acquired Arizona Chemical’s specialty products business for an undisclosed sum. The deal involves a line of naturally derived poly­amide oil gelling polymers. Croda plans to move production to its site in Mevisa, Spain.

Agilent Technologies, the Glyco-MEV laboratory at France’s University of Rouen, and Singapore’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute will work together to develop tools to analyze biologics and vaccines. In addition, Glyco-MEV and BTI will be Agilent’s glycomics reference sites in Europe and Southeast Asia, respectively.

Merck & Co. has returned to Scynexis all rights to MK-3118, an oral glucan synthase inhibitor being developed to treat fungal diseases. The compound, now SCY-078, has completed Phase I clinical trials. Scynexis, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., says it will continue to advance the drug through the clinic.

Cempra has won a contract from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority to develop solithromycin as a treatment for infections in pediatric and bioterror cases. The five-year contract is worth up to $58 million, according to Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Cempra.