Business Roundup

US Vanadium has agreed to acquire Evraz Stratcor, which operates a vanadium chemical facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The plant makes the highest-purity vanadium pentoxide in the world, US Vanadium says.

Arcline Investment Management has invested in Actera Ingredients, a Pennsylvania-based maker of personal care chemicals such as preservatives and hair-repair additives. The investment, Arcline says, creates a platform for future investment in bioactive personal care ingredients.

Elkem, a Norwegian producer of silicon-based materials, has acquired Basel Chemie, a South Korean maker of specialty silicone gels, for an undisclosed sum. Basel Chemie has 32 employees and in 2018 generated sales of almost $8 million.

Silatronix, a C&EN Start-Up to Watch in 2016, has secured $10 million from the US Office of Naval Research to explore the use of its organosilicon electrolytes in batteries. The firm will focus on improving cycling stability of batteries with high-nickel-content nickel-manganese-cobalt cathodes and silicon-graphite anodes.

Boehringer Ingelheim has formed a drug-discovery pact with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Two initial projects will focus on KRas inhibitors for lung and gastrointestinal cancers, and antibodies that activate the TRAILR2 receptor to spur cancer-cell death.

Motif Ingredients has raised $27.5 million in funding to develop animal proteins for foods without involving animals. The firm launched in February with $90 million in funding. It’s also changing its name to Motif FoodWorks.

Landos Biopharma has raised $60 million in series B financing to begin Phase II clinical trials of small-molecule drug candidates for autoimmune diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The compounds target the lanthionine synthetase C-like 2 (LANCL2) pathway.