Business Roundup

Tosoh will spend $37 million to build a 110,000-metric-ton-per-year polyvinyl chloride plant in the Philippines. The facility will nearly double the company’s PVC capacity in the country, which is currently investing in its water distribution and sewage infrastructure.

VWR, a laboratory products supplier, has acquired SeaStar Chemicals, a British Columbia-based maker of high-purity reagents. SeaStar uses proprietary purification technology and a customized bottling process to maintain high reagent purity levels, VWR says.

ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics are extending a 2009 agreement to make biofuels from algae. The companies say they have made “significant progress” in understanding algae genetics and growth characteristics and in increasing oil production.

Merck KGaA has opened a plant in Mollet des Vallès, Spain, that makes meglumine, an FDA-approved drug excipient and a component of medical imaging contrast media. Meglumine interacts with active pharmaceutical ingredients to increase solubility. Merck calls the plant the only one of its kind in Europe.

Merck KGaA and software supplier Palantir Technologies are joining to implement a data integration and analysis regimen at the drug firm. The partnership will launch with initiatives at Merck’s headquarters targeting drug development, patient monitoring, and supply chain management.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has licensed antibody-drug conjugate technology from the South Korean firm LegoChem. The technology, called ConjuAll, uses a site-specific bioconjugation method and a β-glucuronide linker to create homogeneous ADCs, LegoChem says.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has told stock analysts that FDA has officially deemed Sanofi’s Le Trait, France, manufacturing facility to be acceptable. Problems at the plant had threatened the timing of regulatory review of the companies’ jointly developed monoclonal antibody drugs sarilumab and dupilumab.

Evotec, MaRS Innovation, and Canadian researchers have launched Fibrocor Therapeutics to target fibrotic diseases. MaRS and others have invested about $2 million in the Toronto-based start-up, while Evotec is providing drug discovery activities in exchange for an equity stake.