Business Roundup

Ube is expanding silicon nitride production at a facility in Japan to meet demand for electric vehicle parts. The powder is used to make bearings and heat dissipators.

Carbon, a 3D printing company, has opened a design and development center in Bavaria, Germany, to serve European customers and research new products. The firm is based in California.

Sumitomo Chemical has brought in Ginkgo Bioworks to help replace petrochemical synthesis with fermentation for an undisclosed target used in communications and automotive technologies. The two firms are already collaborating on personal care, pharmacetical, and agriculture ingredients.

AGC is expanding its cosmetic silica capacity in Kitakyushu, Japan, by 50%. The plant makes microporous amorphous silica from natural sodium silicate.

Anaergia has won a contract to design, build, and operate a 3.1 MW waste-to-​energy unit at a wastewater treatment plant under construction near San Diego. The system will anaerobically digest wastewater solids and possibly food scraps into biomethane for use on-site.

Symrise is taking a minority stake in the rare sugar producer Bonumose. The firm, which opened a manufacturing and R&D facility in Virginia earlier this year, uses enzymes to make tagatose and allulose from plant-based feedstocks.

Eleven Therapeutics and Novo Nordisk will collaborate to find molecules that promote precise delivery of nucleic acids in cardiometabolic disease therapies. The partners will use Eleven’s discovery platform, which uses DNA-encoded libraries to identify target molecules.

Pfizer and Flagship Pioneering have inked a deal to codevelop 10 new drug programs. Pfizer will have the option to acquire each asset, and Flagship will receive up to $700 million in milestones and royalties per program. Both companies will contribute $50 million to the venture.

Recludix Pharma and Sanofi will partner to develop inhibitors for signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) as a way to treat immunological and inflammatory diseases. The deal gives Sanofi global rights to oral small-molecule STAT6 inhibitors; Recludix will receive an up-front payment of $125 million.