Business Roundup

Huntsman Corp. plans to build a polyurethane systems house in Dubai to supply rigid polyurethane formulations to local makers of footwear, adhesives, and coatings. The methylene diphenyl diisocyanate-based systems market in the Middle East is growing 7% annually, the firm says.

Enterprise Products Partners and Navigator Holdings have picked Enterprise’s Morgan’s Point, Texas, facility as the site for their new ethylene export terminal. Construction has begun on the terminal, which will have the capacity to export 1 million metric tons per year.

Sonnen has raised $70 million from Shell Ventures and other investors to advance its residential solar storage battery business. The firm’s lithium-ion batteries can be connected to each other to form community energy pools.

BASF and the Israeli biotech firm Evogene will work together to develop insecticides that bind to new areas on insect proteins. In an initial collaboration, the companies found a computational method for identifying new compounds.

Bicycle Therapeutics and AstraZeneca have expanded a pact established in 2016 to develop bicyclic peptides for respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. The new agreement grows the number of drug targets the companies are working on.

Lion TCR has raised $20 million in series A funding to develop T-cell therapies for virus-induced cancers, including a program targeting liver cancer caused by hepatitis B. Singapore-based Lion also has a preclinical program targeting virus-related nasopharyngeal cancer.

Novo Nordisk will pay Epigen up to $200 million to license a preclinical compound called EPGN696, which could treat diabetic and chronic kidney disease. The compound inhibits the LPA1 receptor, which is involved in fibrosis and inflammation.

Ipsen has licensed a preclinical oncology drug candidate discovered at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The center will take the drug through Phase I clinical development before handing it off to the French drug firm.