Business Roundup

Cargill and Helm have started building a $300 million 1,4-butanediol facility in Eddyville, Iowa. It will be completed in 2024. The companies announced last year that they would form a joint venture to make biobased alternatives to petrochemicals.

Mission Zero Technologies has raised $5 million in seed funding for electrochemical direct-air-carbon-capture technology. The firm’s Project Hajar collaboration with the CO₂ sequestration firm 44.01 was among 15 projects to win $1 million last month from the carbon removal XPrize.

Ginkgo Bioworks is working with the plant-based ingredient company Evo Foods to develop animal-free egg proteins. Evo has already introduced an egg substitute and is looking to improve taste, texture, and cooking properties.Toray Industries and the technology provider Axens are considering building a plant at Toray’s site in Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost, France. It would break down 80,000 metric tons per year of difficult-to-recycle polyethylene terephthalate waste into the monomer bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate.

Neuvivo has picked Thermo Fisher Scientific to manufacture the active ingredient in NP001, a drug candidate for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that recently completed Phase 2 clinical trials. Thermo Fisher will make the molecule at its plant in Florence, South Carolina.

Sosei Heptares and Kallyope have partnered to find new G-protein-coupled receptor (GCPR) targets for gastrointestinal diseases. Sosei will provide GCPR knowledge and a compound library; Kallyope will bring expertise in gut-brain biology.

AbbVie will pay Cugene $48.5 million for an option to license several interleukin-2 muteins for treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including Cugene’s lead candidate, CUG252. If AbbVie exercises the option, it will take over development of CUG252 after Cugene completes a Phase 1b study.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to build another facility in Boston’s Seaport area. The firm says the project will make it the biggest biotech in Boston by square footage. The new site will be completed in 2025 and support growth programs including cell and gene therapy, according to Vertex.