Business Roundup

Solenis, the former Ashland water treatment business, has agreed to acquire Netherlands-based Lostris International and Wester Blend. The two chemical firms will add their expertise in the pulp, tissue, and towel markets to that of their new owner.

Petronas Chemicals has canceled the construction of a $1.3 billion elastomers plant at its RAPID refining and chemicals project in Johor, Malaysia. The elastomers plant would have been 40% owned by Versalis. Petronas says it is proceeding with polymer and glycols investments at the site.

Solvay says a German court ruled that competitor Molycorp infringed on two Solvay patents covering rare-earth mixed oxides. Molycorp has the right to appeal the judgment. Rare-earth mixed oxides are used to make automotive exhaust catalysts.

Symrise, the German flavors and fragrances company, has opened a site in Tehran, Iran, where it intends to set up sales offices and application-specific labs. Symrise calls itself a pioneer in Iran among multinational companies.

Avantium has raised $23 million in funding in a financing round led by the Belgian investment firms PMV and FPIM. Avantium says the money will go to commercializing its biobased route to polyethylene furanoate, including a 50,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in Antwerp, Belgium.

WuXi AppTec has acquired Crelux, a structure-based drug discovery services company in Munich. The move, intended to strengthen WuXi’s discovery services in Europe, will give the Chinese firm access to services supporting hit-finding activities, conformational analysis, and lead optimization.

Johnson Matthey and Domainex will collaborate to provide small-molecule drug discovery and development services in the U.K. Domainex will provide target-to-lead identification and optimization on projects that will transfer to Johnson Matthey’s custom pharma solutions division for process development and scale-up.

Evotec has agreed to manage the compound collection of the French drug company Pierre Fabre Laboratories for an initial period of five years. Last year, the German drug R&D services firm expanded the Toulouse, France, site where it will house the collection.