Business Roundup

Stepan is planning a $70 million plant in Ascension Parish, La., that would manufacture chemical intermediates for its surfactants and specialty polymers businesses. If the company gives the facility the green light, it should be completed sometime in 2017.

a title="Eastman Chemical" href="http://www.eastman.com/Pages/Home.aspx">Eastman Chemical has agreed to acquire Knowlton Technologies, a designer and maker of fiber-entangled composite materials.

Orion Engineered Carbons’ shares have begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OEC. The company, the former carbon black business of Evonik Industries, priced its shares at $18.00. They fell below that level in early trading.

Calabrian Corp. will expand its production of liquid sulfur dioxide in Port Neches, Texas, by 50% this year. The firm, which calls itself North America’s largest primary producer of SO₂ and derivatives, says the product is used in water treatment, oil and gas, and mining applications.

AkzoNobel and the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore are joining to discover new organometallic precursors for use in fabricating silicon-based solar cells. According to Akzo, the precursors now used were designed for other applications.

Regis Technologies has been chosen as the contract manufacturer of the active ingredient in CanTx’s experimental cancer drug, Cantrixil. CanTx, which hopes to start clinical trials next year, says it chose Morton Grove, Ill.-based Regis for its quick scale-up ability and chiral chemistry experience.

Zealand Pharma and Boehringer Ingelheim will develop a novel peptide against an undisclosed cardiometabolic target from Zealand’s preclinical portfolio. Zealand will be paid $7.5 million. In 2011 the two firms agreed to develop peptide therapies for type 2 diabetes.

Pfizer will acquire Baxter International’s vaccines business for $635 million. The business, which is expected to have sales this year of about $300 million, sells vaccines for meningitis and tick-borne encephalitis. The deal includes part of Baxter’s Austrian plant.

Proteus Digital Health has raised $172 million in a funding round it calls one of the largest U.S. private financings this year. The company is developing drugs with embedded digital sensors for monitoring the body’s response to them.