Business Roundup

Lenzing has named a new CEO, Stefan Doboczky, to succeed Peter Untersperger on June 1. Doboczky is currently a member of DSM’s managing board with responsibility for pharmaceuticals, a business that DSM is exiting.

LyondellBasell Industries plans to add 50 million lb per year of triethylene glycol (TEG) capacity at its Pasadena, Texas, plant, more than doubling the site’s TEG capacity. The firm sees good demand in oil-field, construction, and automotive markets.

Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism engineering firm, has raised $9 million in its first round of venture funding, led by Felicis Ventures. Ginkgo was the first biotech start-up to enter Y Combinator, a California-based incubator that provides seed-stage funding and guidance.

DuPont will work with JinkoSolar, a Chinese manufacturer, to improve the efficiency, durability, and reliability of photovoltaic cells and panels through materials development. DuPont makes metallization pastes, encapsulants, and films used in solar cells.

Asahi Kasei and Japan’s FDK will dissolve a 50-50 venture they formed to develop lithium-ion capacitors. The companies say the Li-ion capacitor market has been developing more slowly than the markets for other energy storage devices.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has licensed ImmunoGen’s antibody-drug conjugate technology, including new DNA-acting drug payloads, for creating anticancer agents. ImmunoGen will receive $20 million up front and may receive milestone payments totaling up to $210 million for each of two targets.

Forma Therapeutics and Cancer Research Technology, the commercial arm of Cancer Research UK, are creating two virtual R&D companies to study compounds targeting deubiquitinating enzymes involved in protein regulation. The virtual firms will coordinate collaboration between scientists in academia and at Forma.

Biogen Idec, the drug company formed in the 2003 merger of Biogen with Idec Pharmaceuticals, has changed its name to Biogen. The firm recently released promising data from Phase I trials of the Alzheimer’s disease treatment aducanumab.