Metabolix selling PHA business

Woburn, Mass.-based polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer maker Metabolix has agreed to sell its core PHA business to South Korea’s CJ CheilJedang for $10 million. The purchase includes intellectual property, platform microbial strains for fermenting PHA, and laboratory facilities. Last month, the company, strapped for cash, said it was winding down the PHA business to focus on its Yield10 Bioscience crop technology. Earlier in the year, CJ and Metabolix announced they were considering the construction of a 10,000-metric-ton-per-year PHA plant at CJ’s Fort Dodge, Iowa, facility, where the firm already makes lysine.