Business Roundup

Röhm and OQ Chemicals have broken ground on their methyl methacrylate plant in Bay City, Texas. The plant will have 250,000 metric tons of capacity when it starts up in 2024.

Clariant has completed the previously announced acquisition of BASF’s US attapulgite business. The $60 million deal includes land, mining rights, and a processing facility.

LanzaJet will receive a $50 million grant from Breakthrough Energy for the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant it is building in Soperton, Georgia. LanzaJet projects that the plant will open in 2023 and convert ethanol into 41 million L of SAF and 4.5 million L of renewable diesel annually.

Norstella has completed its merger with the pharmaceutical business intelligence company Citeline. The resulting $5 billion consulting firm aims to help commercial clients navigate the drug development process.

Avient has completed the $950 million sale of its plastics distribution business to the private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. The business generated sales of $1.6 billion in 2021.

EuroAPI is investing about $18 million in upgrades to its site in Frankfurt, Germany. The company hopes to make 500 kg per year of peptides and nucleotides by 2025.

CSL Seqirus is collaborating with Arcturus Therapeutics to develop and manufacture vaccines for influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory diseases with pandemic potential. For $200 million up front, Arcturus will license its self-amplifying messenger RNA platform and lipid nanoparticle technology to the Australian company; Arcturus is also eligible to receive a portion of future profits and over $4.3 billion in milestone payments.

Exscientia, an artificial intelligence–enabled drug discovery and research system developer, claims that it has expanded its platform to include the design of biologics, including human antibodies. The company says it is establishing an automated biologics laboratory in Oxford, England.