Business Roundup

Ineos plans to expand its phenol plant in Mobile, Ala., by more than 50%. The firm says the plant’s new capacity of 850,000 metric tons per year will make it the largest producer of phenol in the world.

Cabot has acquired a 50,000-metric-ton-per-year carbon black plant in Pizhou, China, from Nippon Steel Chemical & Material. Cabot will initially halt production at the site for maintenance work to raise environmental performance.

Venator will continue talks with Tronox to buy a Cristal-owned titanium dioxide plant in Ashtabula, Ohio, despite expiration of their exclusive negotiating period. The sale would help the merger of Cristal and Tronox clear regulatory review.

Wyatt Technology, a California-based scientific instrument maker, has acquired Superon, a German maker of field flow fractionation instruments that spun off from Wyatt in 2012. Superon’s technology complements Wyatt’s expertise in macromolecular and nanoparticle characterization.

Pivot Bio has raised $70 million in a series B financing round. The firm says it will use the funds to expand R&D and advance its nitrogen-producing microbes as an alternative to nitrogen-containing fertilizers.

Roche will pay GO Therapeutics $9 million in upfront and near-term milestones as part of a deal to develop glycotargeting bispecific antibodies. GO’s technology takes advantage of the aberrant O-linked glycans found on tumor cells, but not normal cells, to develop safer, targeted immunotherapies.

Merck & Co. will work with Dragonfly Therapeutics to discover and develop immunotherapies for patients with solid tumors. The pact, based on Dragonfly’s TriNKET technology, could be worth up to $695 million for Dragonfly.

Boston Pharmaceuticals has acquired three anti-infective programs from Novartis, which is exiting antibiotics R&D. Boston has also acquired five new drug programs no longer wanted by GlaxoSmithKline.