Business Roundup

FMC is buying Isagro’s fluindapyr fungicide business for about $60 million. Isagro, an Italian firm, discovered fluindapyr and has been developing the broad-spectrum fungicide in cooperation with FMC since 2012.

Lucite International will work with the start-up Agilyx to depolymerize polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for recycling into new polymer. Lucite calls PMMA one of just a few plastics that can be depolymerized and purified into a virgin-quality monomer.

Ingevity and the construction materials firm Ozinga Energy will test a pickup truck fueled by natural gas. The gas is stored in fuel tanks containing activated carbon from Ingevity that adsorbs it and reduces cylinder pressure by about 75%.

Deinove, a French start-up developing processes for making antibiotics and bioactive ingredients using Deinococcus bacteria, has named Alexis Rideau its new CEO. Rideau had been at Bioaster, a French applied microbiology institute.

Hovione, a Portuguese pharmaceutical chemical maker, has appointed Jean-Luc Herbeaux to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Herbeaux has held several management positions at Evonik Industries over the past 20 years, most recently heading its health-care business.

Pfizer has formed a partnership to develop Valneva’s experimental Lyme disease vaccine, VLA15, which is in two Phase II clinical trials, with results expected later this year. Pfizer will pay Valneva $130 million up front and up to $178 million in milestone payments.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Vir Biotechnology have selected a lead drug candidate from more than 350 small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) designed to target the SARS-CoV-2 genome. A clinical trial of the siRNA, delivered directly into the lungs, could start by year’s end.

Passage Bio has expanded its research deal with the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program, led by James Wilson, a cofounder of Passage. The firm will pay Penn $5 million annually for research and now has the right to license up to 17 gene therapy programs from Wilson’s lab.