Business Roundup

DSM has agreed to buy another Dutch firm, dairy specialties supplier Koninklijke CSK Food Enrichment, for $166 million. CSK specializes in cultures and other ingredients used in semihard cheeses such as Gouda and Edam.

Johnson Matthey has acquired intellectual property rights to a portfolio of silicon alloy–based anode materials from 3M. The deal is part of the firm’s strategy to develop a portfolio of battery technologies for automotive applications.

Symrise is adding extraction capabilities for botanicals and vanilla at its Teterboro, New Jersey, facility to satisfy demand for natural flavors and fragrances. Others adding extraction capabilities focused on natural plant derivatives include competitor Firmenich, which recently acquired Evonik Industries’ CO₂-extraction business in Germany.

W.L. Gore & Associates will collaborate with Checkerspot, one of C&EN’s 2018 10 Start-Ups to Watch, on high-performance textile coatings with better environmental profiles than conventional perfluorinated compounds. Checkerspot uses algae and chemistry to make customized triglycerides.

Gelest has launched a line of alkylsilicates developed by University of Pennsylvania professor Gary A. Molander. The cross-coupling agents can be used in drug development and for synthetic organic chemistry reactions.

Bayer and Dewpoint Therapeutics will jointly develop small molecules that target biomolecular condensates. Dewpoint could take in up to $100 million if the companies are successful in finding therapies for cardiovascular and gynecological diseases.

Novo Ventures, the investment arm of Novo Nordisk, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have established a drug-discovery accelerator called Novo Broad Greenhouse. Over the next 5 years, Novo will put $25 million into the accelerator to support a variety of early-stage projects, ranging from drug-target validation to assay development. The most promising projects could eventually become the basis of a biotech company or licensing deal.

Werewolf Therapeutics has launched with $56 million in its first formal funding round, led by MPM Capital and Longwood Fund. The biotech firm is developing cancer drugs that become active only when they reach the tumor microenvironment, potentially overcoming the toxicity issues that have plagued certain biological molecules, such as cytokines.