Business Roundup

Solenis has purchased the Mexican firm Poliquímicos, which supplies water treatment chemicals for papermaking and other industries, for an undisclosed sum. Last month, Solenis acquired the paper chemical business of South Africa’s ChemSystems.

Olin has named Scott M. Sutton president and CEO, effective Sept. 1. He will replace John E. Fischer, who will become executive chairman. Sutton has worked at chemical firms including Celanese, Albemarle, and Chemtura.

Stepan is acquiring Clariant’s anionic surfactant business and associated sulfation equipment in Santa Clara, Mexico. Stepan says it will move production to its sites in Ecatepec and Matamoros, Mexico, in the coming months.

Twist Bioscience is licensing its synthetic antibody phage display libraryto Takeda Pharmaceutical, which will use it to discover antibodies for gasteroenterology, neuroscience, oncology, and rare disease therapies. Twist, a DNA synthesis company, is itself moving into drug development.

Entegris has purchased Global Measurement Technologies for $36 million. GMT makes instruments that analyze both chemical mechanical planarization slurries and cleaning chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Foghorn Therapeutics and Merck & Co. will develop small-molecule drugs targeting the chromatin regulatory system’s role in cancer. Merck will pay Foghorn an undisclosed amount plus milestone payments of up to $425 million.

Contemporary Amperex Technology, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery maker, and Honda have formed a pact to develop next-generation batteries for electric vehicles. Honda has acquired a 1% stake in CATL.

Sanofi and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have signed a 5-year pact to develop cancer therapies using biomarker-driven clinical studies. MD Anderson says it manages one of the largest oncology clinical trial programs in the US.