Business Roundup

Arxada will spend about $20 million to expand production of niacin and other nutritional ingredients at its site in Visp, Switzerland. Arxada, formerly part of Lonza, supplies the ingredients to DSM under a long-term agreement.

Sabic and SK Geo Centric will expand capacity at their joint venture in Ulsan, South Korea, by the second quarter of 2024. The venture uses SK’s Nexlene technology to makes linear low-density polyethylene, elastomers, and plastomers.

Colonial Chemical has expanded ether carboxylate capacity at its plant in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. The surfactants are used in metalworking fluids, hydraulic fluids, personal care goods, oil and gas processing, and other applications.

BASF will partner with Spain’s Multiverse Computing to develop quantum software for financial applications. In its initial phase, the project will focus on models for exchange trading optimization between euros and US dollars.

The Good Face Project has raised $5.65 million in seed investment for its cloud-based personal care formulation tool. The ingredient-focused tool combines scientific data, international regulatory requirements, and certification schemes to help brands create new products, the firm says.

Gates Neurosciences has launched to develop treatments for central nervous system disorders. Gates’s leaders include founders of Naurex, which discovered its lead compound, the antidepressant candidate zelquistanel.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has selected National Resilience, a 2-year-old drug services provider, as a partner in its Industry Alliance Program. The program grants researchers involved in institute-funded projects access to a network of drug and venture capital firms.

Freedom Biosciences has come out of stealth with $10.5 million to develop psychedelic-based drugs, including a ketamine alternative, to treat mental illness. Yale University psychiatrist John Krystal, who uncovered the antidepressant effects of ketamine in the 1990s, is a cofounder.