Business Roundup

Kureha will spend $94 mil­lion at its site in Iwaki, Japan, to increase polyphenylene sulfide capacity by 5,000 metric tons per year. The heat-resistant polymer is used in industrial applications such as automotive electronics. The site is located in an area that was affected by the 2011 tsunami.

BioConsortia, a developer of microbes for plant trait enhancement and yield improvement, has raised $10 million from investors, including Otter Capital and Khosla Ventures. CEO Marcus Meadows-Smith says the funding will allow the firm to add more genomic and machine-learning tools.

Prince International has been sold by Palladium Equity Partners to American Securities, both private equity firms, for an undisclosed sum. Prince makes manganese derivatives and other inorganic materials.

Wild Type, a San Francisco-based cultured meat start-up, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Spark Capital, Root Ventures, and other backers. The firm says it is developing a process for making a sustainable salmon-like product.

Spectris, a British maker of scientific instruments and quality-control tools, has acquired Revolutionary Engineering for $19 million. The Detroit-based service provider specializes in testing electric motors and hybrid drive trains.

Syngene International will set up a lab in Bangalore, India, that provides drug discovery services to GlaxoSmithKline. Syngene already operates customized labs for other large firms, ­including Amgen, Baxter, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Compugen, an Israeli cancer immunotherapy company, has signed a deal with MedImmune to develop bispecific and multispecific antibodies for cancer. Compugen will receive $10 million up front and up to $200 million more for the first product.

Boehringer Ingelheim will pay OSE Immunotherapeutics roughly $18 million for the rights to jointly develop OSE-172, a cancer immunotherapy in preclinical studies. OSE-172 is a new type of checkpoint inhibitor, antibodies that release the brakes on the immune system so that it can see and destroy cancer cells.