Business Roundup

Cabot Corp. will expand its carbon black plant in Cilegon, Indonesia, by 160,000 metric tons per year to serve the tire industry in Southeast Asia. In addition, Cabot is spending $50 million across its other carbon black plants to expand capacity by another 150,000 metric tons. The projects are set to be completed by 2021.

Milliken & Co. has struck a deal under which Oxiteno will contract manufacture alkoxylated products at Oxiteno’s new facility in Pasadena, Texas. The pact supplements Milliken’s own production in Inman, S.C.

AkzoNobel will spend close to $5 million to expand its organic peroxide facility in Mahad, India, by 80%. The firm is already building a monochloroacetic acid plant in India.

Ajinomoto and Kohjin Bio will launch what they call Japan’s first contract manufacturer of cell culture media. Japanese companies like Fujifilm and Hitachi Chemical have expanded their regenerative medicine businesses in recent years, boosting the market for cell culture media.

Allergan has acquired a small molecule from Aptinyx that targets NMDA receptors to potentially treat depression. Allergan says the compound complements rapastinel, its injectable NMDA-targeting peptide currently in Phase III clinical trials for major depressive disorder.

Sublimity Therapeutics has raised $64 million to develop STI-0529, an orally delivered form of cyclosporine for treating ulcerative colitis. The drug is formulated to bypass the upper gastrointestinal tract and get to the colon.

Aquafil and Genomatica have formed Project Effective, a multicompany effort to produce biobased fibers. The project follows a pact the two firms formed in January to produce biobased caprolactam, used to make the fiber feedstock nylon 6.

OncoNano has raised $11.7 million in series A funding to support development of its pH-activated compounds. The firm’s first compound, ONM-100, is an imaging agent that guides surgeons by activating in the acidic environment within tumors.