Business Roundup

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Lummus Technology will jointly develop toluene methylation technology for producing the polyester raw material p-xylene. SABIC says the technology is based on a catalyst and process it invented.

Lanxess has agreed to buy two rubber chemical businesses from Solutia’s Flexsys division. Lanxess will integrate Flexsys’ primary accelerators business into its plants in Kallo, Belgium, and Bushy Park, S.C. It will also take over the antireversion agent Perkalink 900.

PerkinElmer says it will not show its instruments at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) set to be held in Atlanta in March 2011. The firm says it wants to connect with customers in a more intimate setting.

DuPont and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization have given a license to the University of South Carolina, Columbia, to use reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization techniques to produce new polymers and nanocomposites. CSIRO invented the techniques and further developed them with DuPont.

DuPont has agreed to acquire MECS, a provider of sulfuric acid process technology and equipment, from American Securities, a private equity firm. American Securities purchased MECS, formerly known as Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems, from its managers in 2008.

Kyowa Hakko Chemical will expand fatty acid oxidation capacity at its site in Chiba, Japan. The company, which is in the process of being sold to the private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners, says the project will more than double capacity by the end of 2011.

Solazyme, an algal oil start-up, and Roquette have formed a joint venture to commercialize algae-derived food ingredients. Roquette will fund a plant with a capacity of more than 10,000 tons per year to be built at one of its corn mills.

Pfizer and Biovista have entered a pilot research agreement to identify new indications for Pfizer drug candidates using Biovista’s Clinical Outcome Search Space technology. The deal includes an up-front payment and potential milestone payments.

Plasticell, a biotech company specializing in high-throughput stem cell research, will collaborate with Belgium’s UCB. UCB will supply drug compound libraries with known biological targets, and Plasticell will screen them for new cell-signaling pathways.