Business Roundup

Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a battery materials discovery start-up, has raised $20 million in its third round of funding. The San Diego–based company will use the funds to improve its high-throughput platform and artificial intelligence capability and to begin sales and licensing.

Solvay will increase capacity for its Tecnoflon FKM fluoroelastomer in Spinetta Marengo, Italy, by nearly one-third. Demand for the polymer is growing in sealing applications in the auto, oil and gas, and semiconductor industries, Solvay says.

DuPont and Lenzing are launching fabrics that combine DuPont’s Sorona fiber and Lenzing’s Lyocell and Tencel fibers. Sorona is 37% plant-based ingredients, and Lenzing’s fibers are derived from wood.

Air Liquide is joining a demonstration project of ArcelorMittal and Lanzatech to capture steelmaking flue gases and turn them into ethanol. Air Liquide is providing gas purification technology to the effort, which will start up in Ghent, Belgium, next year.

Total is doubling the capacity of its Normandy, France–based polypropylene affiliate Synova to 40,000 metric tons annually by 2021. The French oil and chemical giant bought Synova earlier this year.

Celanese has filed a lawsuit against Anhui Jinhe Industrial, alleging that the Chinese company infringed on its process for making acesulfame potassium, a popular zero-calorie sweetener. Celanese holds a Chinese patent on its process.

Lonza will manufacture Mesoblast’s allogeneic cell-therapy candidate, remestemcel-L, at its plant in Singapore. Mesoblast expects to file for US approval of the treatment for rare pediatric diseases by year-end.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals is buying Achillion Pharmaceuticals for roughly $930 million in cash. The deal for Achillion, which has about $230 million in cash in the bank, centers on small-molecule factor D inhibitors in development to treat diseases including paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a blood disorder.