Business Roundup

LyondellBasell Industries and the South Korean firms SK Advanced and Daelim are teaming up to build a 400,000-metric-ton-per-year polypropylene plant in Ulsan, South Korea. To open in 2021, the plant will use Lyondell’s Spheripol technology.

Amvac Chemical has acquired Bayer’s bromacil herbicide business in the U.S. and Canada. Amvac says the purchase is unrelated to Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto.

Gelest says it has begun commercial production of diiodosilane at its plant in Morrisville, Pa. Diiodosilane is a precursor used to deposit silicon nitride films during computer-chip production.

SK Innovation has purchased a high-throughput catalyst testing system from the German firm HTE. SK will use the equipment to test the hydrotreating of heavy refinery feedstocks.

Checkerspothas raised $5 million in seed funding to advance the use of genomics to find new molecular building blocks. The firm says it has an initial focus on materials from microalgae-derived triglycerides.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has bolstered its presence in San Diego with the opening of a new lab. In addition to research space for its scientists, the facility includes a learning lab for STEAM education. Vertex researchers in San Diego discovered three cystic fibrosis treatments.

NodThera has launched with $40 million in its first formal round of funding. The U.K.-based firm is developing small-molecule inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Overactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, a multiprotein complex that plays a role in innate immune response, has been linked to diseases like type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.

Thermalin has teamed with Sanofi to develop engineered insulin analogs for diabetes. Sanofi is also the lead investor in the Cleveland-based firm’s first big round of financing, which totaled $17.5 million. Thermalin licensed its programs from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.