Business Roundup

Quinpario Acquisition Corp., the “blank check” entity formed by former Solutia CEO Jeffry N. Quinn and partners to acquire a prospective specialty chemical or performance materials firm, raised $172.5 million in an initial public offering of stock. It trades on NASDAQ under the symbol QPACU.

Chevron Phillips has received EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits for the ethylene steam cracker it is planning for its Cedar Bayou site and the two polyethylene plants it intends to build at its Sweeny site. The company says the projects, which are awaiting final approval from the firm’s board, are slated for completion in 2017.

Clariant has sold 40% of its Saudi Arabian business in masterbatches, which are color and additive concentrates for plastics, to the Saudi Arabian conglomerate Tasnee. The partners have agreed to build a new plant for the production of white master­batches.

Air Liquide has renewed a contract to supply high-pressure, high-flow nitrogen gas and related launch support services to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The firm has supplied the center with nitrogen since 1968.

GreenLight Biosciences, a Medford, Mass., industrial biotechnology start-up, has received $7 million in funding through the sale of equity to private investors. Greenlight has been developing what it calls its Unconstrained Metabolism platform to make chemicals from biomass.

PTC Therapeutics has received a $10 million payment from Roche upon the partners’ choice of a drug candidate for spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic neuromuscular disease. The small molecule addresses the underlying cause of the disease by increasing levels of the survival motor neuron protein.

Waters Corp. has acquired Nonlinear Dynamics, a maker of proteomics and metabolomics analysis software. The instrumentation firm has been working with Nonlinear for the past two years to develop software to advance the pace of discovery for life sciences researchers.

Maxygen says its shareholders have approved the dissolution of the company by Aug. 22. By the end of the month, the 16-year-old protein-engineering firm will distribute at least $2.50 per share, or a total of about $70 million, to shareholders.

SomaLogic, a Colorado protein biomarker discovery services provider, will make its technology more directly accessible to researchers. With the help of Agilent Technologies, the firms initially will place the SOMAscan proteomic assay, which uses custom Agilent microarrays, in select academic and contract research centers.