Business Roundup

Süd-Chemie has taken a 25% interest in GTC Technology. Germany-based Süd-Chemie says the alliance with the U.S. firm strengthens its position in catalysts for aromatic compounds such as p-xylene, a polyester intermediate.

Liquidia Technologies, a nanotechnology start-up, will receive $3 million in funding from NIST to further develop and scale up its process for making engineered particles. Liquidia’s polymer particles are designed to deliver drugs and vaccines.

Celanese has purchased FACT from the Belgian industrial holding company Ravago Group. FACT, which stands for Future Advanced Composites & Technology, makes long-fiber reinforced thermoplastics, one of the main business lines of Celanese’s Ticona unit.

Arigene has dropped its bid to acquire the biotech firm Trimeris because it couldn’t arrange financing. Arigene, a South Korean medical equipment maker, announced the $81 million takeover in October. A month later, Arigene put up $12 million to be paid to Trimeris in case the deal was terminated.

Clarient, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based cancer diagnostics company, has acquired Applied Geno­mics in a stock deal valued at up to $17.6 million. The deal gives Clarient a pipeline of diagnostic tools, including a five-antibody immunohistochemistry test for identifying non-small-cell lung cancer types.

DSM will manufacture MS1819 for Laboratoires Mayoly Spindler, a French drug company, at its Capua, Italy, fermentation facility. MS1819 is a lipase being developed for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, a digestive disorder characterized by a lack of enzymes.

Jubilant Organosys will build 10,000-metric-ton-per-year plants for niacinamide (vitamin B-3) and the raw material 3-cyanopyridine. The Indian firm says it’s already among the three largest producers of vitamin B-3 worldwide.

GlaxoSmithKline will pay $12 million to apply Seattle Genetics’ antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology against several antigens selected by GSK. Seattle Genetics says it now has nine ADC licensees and generated more than $35 million during 2009 from ADC collaborations.