Business Roundup

BASF is building a specialty amines plant at its headquarters site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The plant will have 12,000 metric tons of annual capacity when it opens in 2015.

Mitsubishi Chemical is extending its 13-year-old collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara, by another four years through a $6 million grant to the UCSB Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials. The joint work currently focuses on solid-state lighting, battery materials, solar cells, and organic transistors.

Clariant is expanding its mining chemicals plant in Casablanca, Morocco, which serves the local phosphate mining industry. Additionally, the company plans to open a lab on the site that will focus on flotation and process chemicals for mining.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has scored a $5 million milestone payment from Sanofi as part of a 2011 pact for the development of GBR 500, a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of chronic autoimmune disorders. With this payment, Glenmark has now received $55 million from Sanofi.

Domain Therapeutics has received a $230,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to help advance mGluR3 positive allosteric modulators, which have been shown in petri dishes to have a neuroprotective effect. MJFF previously provided $300,000 in support.

Cerbios has begun construction of a 6,240-sq-ft R&D laboratory for chemistry and biology at its headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland. The new facility will double the chemical R&D department’s lab space for high-potency active ingredients and will double lab space for monoclonal antibody and recombinant protein research.

Bio-Rad Laboratories, a Hercules, Calif.-based manufacturer of clinical diagnostics products, has acquired GnuBIO, a Cambridge, Mass., DNA-sequencing-technology specialist. GnuBIO is developing an integrated diagnostic tool comprising target selection, DNA amplification, and DNA sequencing and analysis.

Certara, a drug discovery and development software specialist, has acquired Synchrogenix Information Strategies, a provider of regulatory writing and submission services, for an undisclosed sum. Certara says the acquisition will allow the company to provide “end-to-end” support for customers, ranging from drug discovery to filing applications with FDA.

Echelon Biosciences has acquired California Peptide Research, a provider of peptides and other research chemicals. Echelon is owned by Frontier Scientific, which in 2011 acquired the Delaware-based compound management company ASDI.