Business Roundup

ExxonMobil is making 3,000 metric tons (t) more isopropyl alcohol and 1,000 t more polypropylene per month for hand sanitizer and personal protective equipment, respectively. The additional materials are coming from the firm’s plants in Singapore and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

BASF is planning a polyurethanes partnership with Shandong INOV Polyurethane, which calls itself China’s largest producer of propylene oxide. The companies, which will work together on R&D, plan to increase capacity of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, toluene diisocyanate, and polytetrahydrofuran.

TechnipFMC will provide engineering services for a plant the French start-up Carbios is building to demonstrate enzymatic technology for breaking down polyethylene terephthalate into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. The plant, near Lyon, France, is set to open next year.

Sekisui Chemical and the Japanese industrial innovation firm INCJ have formed a joint venture with US-based LanzaTech to commercialize technology for making ethanol from waste. The venture, Sekisui Bio Refinery, will use a microbial catalyst developed by LanzaTech and Sekisui.

EnginZyme has raised about $7 million in a series A funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. The Swedish firm wants to combine enzyme-driven chemistry and packed-bed reactors to produce biobased chemicals and polymers.

Aceto, a distributor of pharmaceutical ingredients and specialty chemicals, has acquired Syntor, a supplier of pharmaceutical ingredients and other fine chemicals. Syntor develops processes in its UK labs and provides manufacturing through partners in China and India.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical will develop and commercialize Esperion’s LDL cholesterol–lowering drugs, nexletol and nexlizet, in Japan; the drugs are already approved in the US. Esperion will get $60 million in cash and up to $450 in milestone payments.

Gilead Sciences and oNKo-innate have teamed to develop drugs and cell therapies focused on natural killer cells, white blood cells involved in the innate immune response. For Gilead, the pact complements internal expertise in engineered cell therapies based on T-cells.