Business Roundup

Albemarle plans to relocate its corporate headquarters and performance chemical operations from Baton Rouge, La., to Charlotte, N.C. In addition, Baton Rouge employees of the firm’s refining solutions unit will relocate to the unit’s Clear Lake, Texas, office. In all, 120 employees will move by June 2016.

Afton Chemical will expand its petroleum additive facility in Singapore to meet burgeoning demand for auto engine oil in Asia. New facilities will double the firm’s investment on Jurong Island to $285 million when they are completed in 2017.

Ajinomoto and T. Hasegawa, both of Japan, are joining to develop fermentation-derived natural flavors. The partners say they are combining Ajinomoto’s fermentation expertise with Hasegawa’s flavor refining and formulation technology.

TerraVerdae BioWorks, a Canadian biobased materials firm, says it has successfully completed a 10,000-L polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymer production run at the U.K.’s Centre for Process Innovation. TerraVerdae intends to market PHA microbeads for use in cosmetics.

BeiGene, a Beijing-based drug discovery firm focused on oncology, will build a 100,000-sq-ft biopharmaceutical plant in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai. The company aims to become a vertically integrated pharmaceutical developer and producer.

AmbioPharm, a peptide maker and developer of generic drugs, is investing $18.8 million in an expansion of its North Augusta, S.C., operations. The project, which includes a manufacturing suite and a new headquarters building, is expected to bring 100 new jobs, a 50% employment increase.

Medivation will acquire the rights to talazoparib, a small-molecule breast cancer therapy, from BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Medivation will pay BioMarin $410 million up front and milestone payments of up to $160 million plus royalties on commercialized drugs.

Immatics Biotechnologies and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have formed Immatics US, a company in the field of T-cell- and T-cell-receptor-based therapies. Immatics Biotechnologies, based in Germany, has committed $40 million to the new firm; the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas is putting in close to $20 million.