Business Roundup

FMC will sell a portion of its European herbicide business to Nufarm for $90 million. FMC is divesting the products to win European Commission approval for its purchase of much of DuPont’s crop protection business.

W.R. Grace’s CEO, Fred Festa, will step down by the end of 2018. He will remain nonexecutive chair. As part of its succession plan, Grace says that Chief Operating Officer Hudson La Force will join the firm’s board.

DuPont Crop Protection is partnering with Arysta LifeScience to develop seed treatments. Under the deal, DuPont will develop Arysta’s fungicide technology initially for corn and soybean seeds but ultimately for other crops.

In-Part has launched as a web-based service for pairing academics with companies interested in collaborating. Companies including BP, Unilever, and Glaxo­Smith­Kline have signed up for the algorithm-based matching service, In-Part says.

Evonik Industries has renewed an agreement to supply active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates to Eli Lilly & Co. for use in human and veterinary products. Production occurs at a plant in Lafayette, Ind., that Evonik acquired from Lilly in 2010.

ChemDiv, a California-based contract research organization, will supply chemistry services to Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute. Tri-I TDI is a consortium of academic research institutes in New York City developing therapies in multiple areas.

Takeda Pharmaceutical is partnering with needle-free biologic drug delivery firm Portal Instruments to deliver Takeda’s monoclonal antibody Entyvio to people with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Portal could earn up to $100 million in milestones.

Boehringer Ingelheim and MiNA Therapeutics will develop treatments for fibrotic liver disease using MiNA’s small activating RNA technology. Boehringer recently signed a similar deal with RNA interference specialist Dicerna Pharmaceuticals.