Business Roundup

DSM has added to its line of nutritional specialties by acquiring Dutch firm Twilmij, which produces ingredients used in animal feed, for an undisclosed sum. Twilmij had approximately $78 million in sales in 2016.

BASF plans to build a specialty amines plant in Nanjing, China, by 2019. The plant will have 21,000 metric tons of annual capacity for products such as 1,2-propylenediamine, n-octylamine, and polyetheramine.

The American Vanguard subsidiary of Amvac Chemical will acquire OHP, a provider of pesticides used in greenhouses and plant nurseries. The deal, to close this month, is part of Amvac’s expansion beyond traditional row-crop products.

Carbon, a start-up developing a three-dimensional printing technology based on optical curing of polymers, has initiated a new program for large customers that it says will reduce the cost of its materials, such as rigid polyurethanes, from $250 per L to $150 per L initially and eventually below $100 per L. The company hopes the lower prices will attract industrial customers to its process.

Deep Genomics has raised $13 million in funding from venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and True Ventures. The Toronto-based start-up is using artificial intelligence to discover new antisense oligonucleotide therapies.

Sumitomo Chemical will acquire a 20% stake in the Japanese biotechnology firm Bonac. Based in Fukuoka in southern Japan, Bonac develops nucleic acid-based drug candidates. The firm, formed in 2010, employs 26 people.

ADC Bio, based in St. Asaph, Wales, has secured $11 million from investors and government agencies to build a 6,500-m² facility for the commercial production of antibody-drug conjugates. Due to open in December 2018, the facility will be equipped to make batch sizes of between 100 g and 1 kg of product.

Gilead says China’s FDA has approved its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi for the Chinese market. Gilead has not said at what price it will sell the drug in China, but it’s likely to be cheaper than in the U.S. In 2014, Gilead licensed Sovaldi to seven Indian generic drug producers and allowed them to distribute in several emerging markets, not including China.