Business Roundup

PeroxyChem, the former peroxygens business of FMC, plans to build a hydrogen peroxide purification facility in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The company says the plant is meant to meet strong demand for ultra-high-purity hydrogen peroxide in semiconductor manufacturing.

Ube Industries will build a polycarbonate diol plant with an annual capacity of 3,000 metric tons in Thailand. The company already has 8,000 metric tons of capacity for the materials, which are used in polyurethanes, in Japan and Spain.

DuPont is planning $100 million in investments at its packaging and industrial polymers plants in Texas over the next four years. The company says the spending will support growth in its ionomer resins, ethylene copolymers, ethylene acrylic elastomers, and other polymers.

Neste Oil, a transportation fuels firm, will build a unit to extract biobased propane in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where the company already makes biobased diesel. The $78 million unit will purify the bio­propane from coproduct gases produced in Rotterdam.

Evotec and CHDI Foundation, a nonprofit that fights Huntington’s disease, have extended their drug discovery collaboration through 2017. Evotec, a German contract research firm, says the extension will fund up to 52 of its scientists over the next three years.

The University of Pennsylvania has unveiled plans for its Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics, a 30,000-sq-ft research center devoted to developing chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CARTs). Novartis, Penn’s partner in the development of CARTs since 2012, has contributed $20 million toward the development of the research center, which will be home to 100 scientists when it is completed in 2016.

Merck Serono and Sutro Biopharma have announced a licensing and partnership agreement under which the firms will develop antibody-drug conjugates for multiple undisclosed targets. Sutro will receive an undisclosed and up-front payment and is eligible for milestone payments up to $297 million.

Endo Pharmaceuticals, a specialty health care firm, has made a bid to acquire Auxilium, a specialty biopharmaceutical firm, in a stock and cash deal valued at $2.2 billion. Endo is eyeing Auxilium’s 12 products in men’s health and pain.

Akashi Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has acquired rights to GsMTx-4, a peptide developed by Tonus Therapeutics. Discovered in tarantula venom, GsMTx-4 addresses the calcium level imbalance in muscle that affects people with the disease.