Business Roundup

The Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates says its CEO, Lawrence D. Sloan, will leave the association in October. Sloan, who took the helm at SOCMA in 2010, will join the American Industrial Hygiene Association. SOCMA says a search for Sloan’s replacement is under way.

The Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates says its CEO, Lawrence D. Sloan, will leave the association in October. Sloan, who took the helm at SOCMA in 2010, will join the American Industrial Hygiene Association. SOCMA says a search for Sloan’s replacement is under way.

U.S. Methanol, a new company, plans to relocate a methanol plant from Brazil and resurrect it in Institute, W.Va. An announcement from the office of West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) says the plant will open on July 1, 2017, creating more than 60 permanent positions.

Corbion, a Dutch maker of lactic acid-based products, has named Marcel Wubbolts its chief technology officer and a board member. Wubbolts, who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and natural sciences, joins after 20 years with DSM, where for the past five years he had been chief technology officer.

Pixelligent Technologies has raised $10.4 million in a funding round led by the Abell Foundation, the Bunting Family Office, and the former chief investment officer of T. Rowe Price. Based in Baltimore, Pixelligent is developing high-index materials for solid-state lighting and organic light-emitting diode displays.

Albany Molecular Research Inc. will work with the University at Albany, SUNY’s RNA Institute to discover and develop RNA-based therapeutics and research tools. The institute will share its assays and quality-control and assessment standards to support R&D conducted by AMRI and the company’s customers.

Chiasma is reducing its workforce by 44% to fewer than 25 people. The reduction and an earlier round of job cuts follow FDA’s rejection in April of the biotech firm’s approval application for Mycapssa, an octreotide-based treatment for adult acromegaly.

Eleven Biotherapeutics has licensed its interleukin-6 antagonist antibodies to Roche for $7.5 million up front and up to $263 million in potential milestone payments. Lead candidate EBI-031, which inhibits IL-6 cytokine signaling, will soon go into clinical testing for treating eye diseases.