Business Roundup

Lubrizol will spend $20 million to enhance production of acrylic emulsions at its facility in Gastonia, North Carolina. The firm says the emulsions are used in coatings for paper, textiles, and construction materials.

AmphiStar has raised more than $6 million to develop biosurfactants from waste. The firm, a 2021 spin-off from Ghent University, says it will use the funds to refine its process and engineer a production facility.

Sanyo Chemical has agreed to assess Econic Technologies’ process for making polyols from carbon dioxide. Econic says it has already licensed its technology to companies in China, the US, and India and that industrial quantities of the polyols will be available later this year.

Vantage Specialty Chemicals plans to expand capacity for N-methyltaurine, a sulfate-free surfactant, at its facility in Leuna, Germany. The firm says the project will almost triple capacity for the surfactant by 2025.

Bayer has secured exclusive rights from the UK’s AlphaBio Control to market the first-ever biological insecticide—a naturally occurring substance that kills insect pests—for arable crops. AlphaBio’s biological pesticide has potential against coleoptera insects like the cabbage stem flea beetle, Bayer says.

Greeneye Technology has raised $20 million to develop an herbicide sprayer that can identify individual weeds in a field and apply chemicals only where they’re needed. The company hopes to deploy dozens of the sprayers on US farms this year.

Boehringer Ingelheim has tapped Ochre Bio to develop RNA medicines for liver diseases. The large pharma firm will pay Ochre $35 million in up-front and near-term milestone payments and up to $1 billion over time.

Ipsen Pharma and the Boston-based biotech firm Skyhawk Therapeutics are joining to develop small molecules that modulate RNA for rare neurological diseases. Skyhawk can get up to $1.8 billion in milestone payments, while Ipsen will receive global rights to two drug candidates developed using Skyhawk’s technology.