Business Roundup

Borealis has joined with First Energy Bank of Bahrain to acquire a 20.3% stake in Neochim, Bulgaria’s leading fertilizer producer. Borealis, an Austrian chemical company, says the purchase advances a strategy of expanding its fertilizer business in Central and Eastern Europe.

Marrone Bio Innovations has begun producing a bioinsecticide called Grandevo at its new facility in Bangor, Mich. The company installed the first of three fermentation tanks as part of a $32 million renovation of the former biodiesel plant.

Solliance, a partnership of R&D organizations in Northern Europe, claims to have produced the world’s first organic photovoltaics made exclusively with ink-jet printing. The partners say organic photovoltaics can be used to make solar cells that are flexible, lightweight, and semitransparent.

Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, will work with Russia’s Rosneft to set up a synthetic rubber R&D center in Armenia with local partner Oil Techno. The three firms want to develop styrene-butadiene rubber for use in fuel-efficient tires.

Metabolix, a manufacturer of polyhydroxyalkanoate biopolymers, has appointed Joseph Shaulson as its new CEO, replacing Richard Eno. Shaulson, 48, was previously executive vice president of Arch Chemicals.

DyStar’s Color Solutions International division will open a color center at Donghua University, in Shanghai. DyStar, a leading dyes producer, says it aims to raise color technology and applications standards in China’s textile industry.

Kalexsyn, a provider of medicinal chemistry contract research services, has signed a three-year agreement to use SciFinder, a chemistry research tool provided by ACS’s Chemical Abstracts Service. Kalexsyn says the agreement will allow its chemists to explore discovery opportunities on a predictable budget.

FDA has granted Glaxo­SmithKline and Medicines for Malaria Venture “breakthrough therapy” designation for tafenoquine, an 8-aminoquinoline derivative the two are developing as a malaria treatment. Drugs with the breakthrough designation get special guidance from FDA as they move through the approval process.