Business Roundup

PMC Ouvrie, a French subsidiary of PMC Group, has agreed to acquire a line of hydrocolloid products from Solvay. Brand named Rhodicare, the line is marketed to makers of home, personal care, industrial, and coating products.

Shepherd Chemical will spend $8.5 million to expand R&D and manufacturing at its facility in Mirecourt, France. The plant makes metal-based chemicals used, for example, as rubber adhesion promoters and lube additives.

Oxea says it is studying the feasibility of building a “world-scale” carboxylic acid plant. At the same time, the German firm says it will expand output at its five existing facilities, including doubling isononanoic acid capacity this year.

Lygos has received a $5 million investment from LG Technology Ventures as part of its series B funding round, raising its take to $20.5 million. California-based Lygos is developing biobased organic acids using computer modeling and microbe engineering.

Covestro and the appliance maker Haier will set up a digitalization lab in Qingdao, China. The new facility will be tasked with automating the process of injecting polyurethane insulation during refrigerator manufacturing.

BioNTech, a German company developing cancer immunotherapies, will acquire the antibody generation unit of MAB Discovery. BioNTech plans to encode the antibody therapies in messenger RNA molecules, which cells can read and translate to make antibodies themselves.

Cerbios-Pharma, a Swiss drug services firm, will add a production line to its high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing facility in Lugano, Switzerland. The new line will be the fifth at the site, Cerbios says.

BridgeBio Pharma has completed a $299 million financing round. Formed in 2015, BridgeBio seeks to translate university and medical center discoveries into genetically targeted therapeutics. It says it has more than 15 drugs in development.