Business Roundup

Trinseo, the former styrenics business of Dow Chemical, will close a styrene-butadiene latex plant in Gales Ferry, Conn., by the end of the year because of declining demand from the coated paper industry. The company says it will serve customers out of plants in Midland, Mich., which it is upgrading, and Dalton, Ga.

Bayer is realigning into three divisions—pharmaceuticals, consumer health, and crop science—after the separation of its materials business as Covestro. Bayer says its current structure of a management holding group and operational subgroups will be replaced by one integrated organization.

Merck KGaA has licensed silicate phosphor chemistry from Austria-based Tridonic to make white light-emitting diodes. Combining silicate phosphors with blue LEDs enables the production of bright white LEDs, Merck says.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has resigned as auditor of Tianhe Chemicals, a troubled Chinese chemicals producer. Tianhe’s shares have been suspended from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since March because of its failure to produce audited financial results for 2014.

Amyris will create R&D tools for developing biobased molecules under an agreement with the biological technologies office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Amyris, which converts plant sugars into hydrocarbons, says the pact is worth up to $35 million.

AkzoNobel will double capacity and increase employment by 20% at its powder coatings plant in Dong Nai, Vietnam. The facility supplies Southeast Asia, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Crystal Pharmatech has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Renren Lianhe Holdings, a Chinese social networking firm. Crystal, formed in 2010 with facilities in the U.S. and China, offers materials science and engineering services to drug industry customers.

Purdue Pharma has formed a joint venture with AnaBios to accelerate development of its Na_V 1.7 sodium ion channel blockers for the treatment of chronic pain. The venture will leverage Purdue’s chemistry and AnaBios’s Phase-X technology, which enables the study of ex vivo human response to drugs.