Business Roundup

Investimus Foris, a Lithuanian conglomerate, is acquiring the former Vanguard Synfuels facility in Pollock, La., with plans to turn it into a 500,000-ton-per-year ammonia plant. Investimus Foris says it will purchase ammonia production components and combine them with ammonia infrastructure already at the site.

DSM and Evonik Industries are joining to develop algae-based omega-3 fatty acid products for animal nutrition. The European chemical makers say algae-based omega-3s would be an alternative to fish oil and fish meal, which are in finite supply.

United Parcel Service has signed agreements with three biobased fuels firms—Nestlé, Renewable Energy Group, and Solazyme—to purchase up to 46 million gal of renewable diesel over the next three years. UPS seeks to get 12% of its ground fleet fuel from alternative sources by the end of 2017.

Solvay will build a high-purity hydrogen peroxide plant in Italy to supply “one of the world’s leading electronics producers.” Separately, the firm says it will stop making sodium percarbonate in Rosignano, Italy, because of declining demand for powdered laundry detergents, where it is used as a bleach.

Formosa Plastics’ general manager, Lin Chen-jung, and 24 other company officials have resigned following revelations that employees accepted bribes from suppliers. The Taiwanese firm says it is strengthening its internal audits to prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents.

Hovione and the Australian drug firm Invion will codevelop an inhaled form of the asthma drug zafirlukast, which is now taken as a pill. A dry powder form of the drug will be engineered using an inhaler designed by Hovione, which will supply the finished product in return for royalties.

Takeda Pharmaceutical will work with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative to find the best compound in an aminopyrazole series against visceral leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The program is being funded with $3.2 million from Japan’s Global Health Innovative Technology Fund.

Boehringer Ingelheim will pay Hanmi Pharmaceutical $50 million up front and up to $680 million in milestones for rights to HM61713, a third-generation EGFR inhibitor in Phase II studies to treat lung cancer. Hanmi retains the rights to the small-molecule drug in South Korea, China, and Hong Kong.