Business Roundup

Afton Chemical will build a gasoline additive blending plant by the end of 2021 at its site in Singapore, where it produces petroleum additives. Afton says it has already invested close to $300 million at the site.

Nouryon has picked Green Bay, Wisconsin, as the site for its first US plant for Expancel brand expandable microspheres, used in lightweight coatings and other products. Nouryon disclosed plans last year for a US facility to complement ones in Sweden, Brazil, and China.

Gevo has signed an agreement to supply renewable hydrocarbon fuels to a unit of Trafigura, a leading commodity trading firm. Gevo says the deal brings to over $1.5 billion its contracts for the biobased fuels it is developing in Luverne, Minnesota.

Provivi, one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2015, has been granted regulatory approval in Brazil for its first product, a pheromone spray to control fall armyworm, a major corn and rice pest. The pheromone draws insects away from crops and prevents them from finding each other to mate.

DSM has launched an initiative to make animal farming sustainable. Among the goals of the Dutch firm, a supplier of animal nutrition products, are reducing emissions from livestock, reducing reliance on marine resources, and tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has licensed rights to therapies for fibrotic liver diseases, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, from Engitix, a 2016 spin-off from University College London. Engitix could receive more than $500 million in payments.

Freenome has raised $270 million in a series C funding round, bringing its overall funding to more than $500 million. The California firm is developing blood-based early-detection tests for cancer, starting with colorectal cancer.

AbbVie will pay $20 million to license small-molecule integrin inhibitors for fibrotic diseases from Morphic Therapeutic. AbbVie paid Morphic $100 million in 2018 to launch their R&D pact in fibrotic diseases.