Business Roundup

Linde and Hyosung will invest $245 million in what they’re calling the world’s largest liquid hydrogen facility. The plant, scheduled to open in 2022 in Ulsan, South Korea, will be able to deliver 13,000 metric tons of H₂ per year. The investment includes a distribution network to supply the fuel to passenger vehicles.

BASF and Fuchs, a German producer of lubricants, are working together to identify the most sustainable and economically viable hydraulic fluids. As part of their collaboration, the firms plan to explore biodegradable ester–based hydraulic fluids.

Faradion, a British start-up developing sodium-ion battery technology, has secured a deal to supply sodium-ion batteries to the Australian industrial conglomerate ICM. The batteries will be aimed primarily at the household energy market.

Tosoh has completed a 3-year upgrade of its main R&D facility in Shūnan, Japan. The company says the project brings together under one roof 150 employees in inorganic and organic research, as well as in technology and analysis.

Syngenta and Novozymes have launched a broad spectrum biofungicide, Taegro, in several European counties and Honduras. They expect to soon obtain wide approval in the European Union and Latin America for the foliar treatment, which is used to protect fruits and vegetables from fungal diseases.

Actym Therapeutics has raised $34 million in series A financing to engineer bacteria that deliver immune system–modulating molecules into solid tumors for cancer immunotherapy. The Berkeley, California, firm was founded by scientists previously at Halozyme Therapeutics and Aduro Biotech.

FoRx Therapeutics has raised more than $10 million in seed funding from firms including the venture arms of Merck KGaA, Novartis, and Pfizer. The Swiss company is developing small molecules that disable cancer cells using synthetic lethality.

Sarepta Therapeutics will work with the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to identify antisense oligonucleotides that could treat COVID-19. Depending on the results, the partners will consider funding proposals.