Business Roundup

Ashland has warned investors that demand for its specialty chemicals for consumer product and industrial uses was lower than expected in the April–June quarter. It says adjusted earnings will be 76–78 cents per share, down from an April forecast of 80–90 cents. It has trimmed its full-year earnings projection by about $25 million.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and the Chinese methylene diphenyl diisocyanate producer Wanhua Chemical have agreed to a partnership that could be worth $12 billion. It calls for the formation of a polyurethane chemical joint venture in Ruwais, United Arab Emirates, and a petrochemical facility in Yantai, China.

Fluence Analytics, a 2013 Tulane University spin-off that provides information technology for polymer manufacturers, has closed a series A funding round. Energy Innovation Capital, an existing investor, and Mitsubishi Chemical’s Diamond Edge Ventures participated in the round.

DSM says it will further upgrade its vitamin C plant in Jiangshan, China, this summer. The company says the project will improve quality, safety, sustainability, and production efficiency.

Boehringer Ingelheim will pay the South Korean company Bridge Biotherapeutics about $50 million to license an experimental small molecule that inhibits autotaxin, an enzyme that promotes fibrosis. The molecule is in the midst of clinical studies to treat fibrotic lung diseases.

Bruker has acquired the molecular imaging software developer PMOD Technologies. Bruker, a scientific instrument maker, says the purchase of the Swiss firm extends its preclinical research software portfolio.

Notable has raised $40 million in a series B funding round led by B Capital Group and LifeForce Capital. San Francisco-based Notable has an artificial intelligence-based approach that it says advances cancer drug development at low cost.