Business Roundup

Natural Resource Partners has acquired a 49% interest in OCI Wyoming, a producer of soda ash, from the oil exploration firm Anadarko Petroleum for $292.5 million. South Korea’s OCI Chemical has a controlling interest in OCI Wyoming and operates the site.

W.R. Grace says it has increased its recorded asbestos-related liabilities by $365 million to $1.7 billion. The company, which has been in bankruptcy reorganization since 2001, says the increase in reserves will go to pay asbestos personal injury claimants.

Lanxess will spend about $75 million to build a plant in Ningbo, China, that will make colorants for paint. Expected to come on-line in 2015, the facility will produce iron oxide red pigments for the company’s customers in China and abroad.

ScinoPharm, the Taiwanese drug firm, will invest $3.6 million in a joint venture with Foresee Pharmaceuticals, based in Newark, Del., to develop injectable peptide-based drugs, beginning with an injectable form of the prostate cancer drug Leuprolide. The partners will use Foresee’s proprietary controlled-release technology. ScinoPharm will be the exclusive provider of the active pharmaceutical ingredient

Fujifilm has started to operate new production facilities in Kyushu, Japan, for triacetate cellulose film, in which it has invested more than $360 million. The materials are used in making liquid-crystal displays for large-screen television sets. Fujifilm’s market share for the films exceeds 65%.

AstraZeneca has licensed OX-CLI, a compound for respiratory diseases in preclinical studies, from Orexo. Terms of the pact were not disclosed, but AstraZeneca will pay the Swedish biotech milestones and also gain an option to buy related compounds from Orexo.

Life Technologies will provide genetic analyzers and materials to help identify 20,000 human remains found in mass graves in Libya after the end in 2011 of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. The University of North Texas will train Libyan scientists to use the equipment.

Medicago, a biotech vaccines firm specializing in viruslike particles, and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings will collaborate to develop a plant-based protein production system. The partners will investigate Mitsubishi’s hydroponic cultivation system and Medicago technologies to produce biopharmaceuticals.