Business Roundup

BASF and Americas Styrenics, a joint venture between Trinseo and Chevron Phillips Chemical, have joined the World Plastics Council. The resin makers forum focuses on initiatives such as improved waste management and the prevention of marine litter. Other members include LyondellBasell, Covestro, and SABIC.

The Charleston International Manufacturing Center in South Carolina will spend $20 million to build a liquid sodium silicate plant. Evonik Industries, which is building a precipitated silica plant at the center, will be a customer.

Bayer has licensed rights, excluding Japan and a few other countries, to a new fungicide developed by Mitsui Chemicals. With an expected market launch of 2020, the fungicide, quinofumelin, is intended for use on fruit trees, vegetables, oil seeds, and rice.

Syngenta has acquired FarmShots, a North Carolina-based start-up that helps farmers track plant health and fertilizer needs using satellite images, for an undisclosed sum. FarmShots’ software and field displays use data from NASA’s Landsat 8 and privately operated satellites.

Yara and Arab Potash are studying whether to double production of the fertilizer potassium nitrate at Arab Potash’s plant in Jordan. Yara would get a 30% stake in the expanded facility.

Merck KGaA will spend about $50 million to build life sciences product manufacturing and distribution centers in South Korea and India. It will also build a facility for single-use biomanufacturing products in China.

AstraZeneca will pay $30 million to Ionis Pharmaceuticals for an antisense drug designed to treat a kidney disease. Ionis stands to gain up to $300 million in milestone payments. Ionis says it has already made more than $220 million in its antisense drug partnership with AstraZeneca.

Frequency Therapeutics will work with Harvard University and the U.S. Army to develop small-molecule drugs that spur muscle regeneration. Frequency also got a grant from the diabetes group JDRF to study turning intestinal cells into insulin-secreting cells.