Business Roundup

Orica will sell its chemicals business to the private equity firm Blackstone for about $650 million. The Australia-based business, which had sales last year of $1.1 billion, produces chlor-alkali and is involved in chemical distribution.

A. Schulman plans to shut down a specialty plastics plant in Stryker, Ohio, that it acquired from Ferro in July. About 70 jobs will be lost when the plant closes in April 2015 and A. Schulman shifts production to other facilities.

Shire, a U.K. drugmaker, will relocate more than 500 jobs from its Chesterbrook, Pa., site to its Lexington, Mass., location, where it will establish a new U.S. headquarters. The firm says the move will save more than $25 million annually beginning in 2016.

Eastman Chemical has linked with DSI Plastics to develop a recycling system for Eastman’s copolyesters. The partners hope to build a market for the recycled polymer in animal farm flooring and walls.

Catalent has acquired the particle size engineering firm Micron Technologies to expand its capabilities in drug delivery and formulation. The acquisition is Catalent’s second since it became a public company in July; it bought the antibody-drug conjugate technology firm Redwood Bioscience in October.

Dow Chemical plans to spend more than $50 million to expand polyethylene capacity at its complex in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, over the next 18 months. Dow has been working with state oil company YPF to develop Argentina’s shale gas resources.

Riffyn, a seven-month-old software firm, has raised $1.8 million in seed financing to help it develop software to improve reproducibility in life sciences, chemical, and materials R&D. The firm notes that segments of the science community suffer from reproducibility rates as low as 10%.

Zoetis, the former animal health unit of Pfizer, will spend $255 million to purchase Abbott’s animal health business. Zoetis says the acquisition will strengthen its business in companion animal health, diagnostics, and surgery-related products.

Intellia Therapeutics has been formed to develop drugs using CRISPR-Cas9 technology for gene editing and repair. The firm, which licensed the technology from Caribou Biosciences, raised $15 million in a financing round led by Novartis and Atlas Ventures.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals will pay $2.5 million to use Tekmira Pharmaceuticals’ lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for the delivery of DCR-PH1, an investigational drug for the treatment of a liver disorder. Dicerna hopes to begin Phase I clinical trials next year.