Business Roundup

Ineos has agreed to sell its melamine and paraformaldehyde business to the German phenolic resins maker Prefere Resins. The Ineos business operates sites in Springfield, Massachusetts; Frankfurt, Germany; and Surabaya, Indonesia.

Dow plans to expand alkoxylation capacity in Tarragona, Spain, by 2021. The company has also been expanding alkoxylation capacity on the US Gulf Coast.

Indorama Ventures says it is the first chemical company in Thailand to secure a loan featuring reduced borrowing rates linked to its environmental, social, and governance performance. The loan, from Japan’s Mizuho Bank, is for both $100 million and €100 million.

Ecovia Renewables is constructing a pilot plant for its fermentation-derived biopolymers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The biodegradable alternatives to synthetic and starch-based polymers can be used as water-retentive soil additives and food thickeners.

BASF will spend approximately $60 million over the next 10 years to modernize its silica facility in Düsseldorf-Holthausen, Germany. BASF calls the facility one of the world’s largest for the widely used inorganic chemical.

Alentis Therapeutics has raised $12.5 million in its series A financing round. The Swiss-French biotech company is developing a monoclonal antibody against a protein involved in liver diseases and liver cancer.

Ceradis, a Dutch crop protection start-up, has raised $10 million in an equity financing round. The firm, a spin-off from Wageningen University & Research, says it will use the money to commercialize its CeraMax biofungicide.

AstraZeneca and BenevolentAI will use artificial intelligence to develop treatments for kidney and lung disease. The pact will join AstraZeneca genomics, chemistry, and clinical data with BenevolentAI’s target-identification platform and biomedical knowledge graph.