Business Roundup

Ineos has green-lit plans to build a 420,000-metric-ton-per-year linear α-olefin plant at its Chocolate Bayou, Texas, site by 2018. Strong market prospects for α-olefins and cheap ethylene on the Gulf Coast prompted the company to increase the size of the plant above its previously planned 350,000 metric tons.

Sol Voltaics, a Swedish start-up, has raised $17 million in a third round of funding, including an investment by the venture arm of King Saud University and a grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. Sol is developing high-efficiency solar materials based on gallium arsenide nanowires.

Gilson, a laboratory equipment provider, is offering analytical scientists free lab notebook software. The software was unveiled at the Analytica scientific instrumentation show in Munich earlier this month.

Klogene Therapeutics, at work on therapies for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, has been awarded a $1.49 million Small Business Innovation Research grant by the National Institute on Aging. The company was cofounded by Boston University biochemistry professor Carmela Abraham.

Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures is collaborating with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on understanding multiple sclerosis. SGBV has several collaborations in MS research, including one signed last year with Ablynx that is investigating the use of single-domain antibody fragments.

Bayer has agreed to sell its North American and European Bayer Garden and Bayer Advanced units, which sells plant care products to gardeners and homeowners, to SBM Développement. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but the business generated about $270 million in sales last year.

Taiho Pharmaceutical, a Japanese oncology drug developer, has launched a $50 million California-based fund that will invest in oncology start-ups worldwide. Taiho injected $30 million into Remiges BioPharma Fund in 2014.

Fosun Pharmaceutical of China has made a nonbinding offer to buy India’s Gland Pharma, reportedly for more than $1 billion. The private equity firm KKR paid $200 million for a minority stake in Gland, a contract manufacturer of injectable drugs, in 2013.