Business Roundup

Evonik Industries will close its DL-methionine plant in Wesseling, Germany, and focus production at its plants in Belgium, the US, and Singapore. But the firm says it will spend about $30 million to expand capacity for methionine intermediates in Wesseling.

Barentz International will buy Maroon Group, a rival distributor of chemicals and life sciences ingredients, for an undisclosed sum. Based in Avon, Ohio, Maroon has about 300 employees and annual sales of $500 million.

BASF says it will close a glufosinate facility in Muskegon, Michigan, and one plant in Knapsack, Germany, by 2022, a move that affects 100 jobs. The company will still make the herbicide at other sites in Germany, the US, and Canada.

Chevron Phillips Chemical has completed what it calls the first US commercial-scale production of polyethylene from feedstocks derived from mixed plastic waste. The company is attempting to secure pyrolysis oil that it would need to make the polymer a permanent addition to its portfolio.

SRI International has been awarded $4.3 million from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a version of SRI’s SynFini automated synthesis system. The new version will target rapid production of therapeutic small molecules.

Rappta Therapeutics has closed a $10.6 million series A funding round to develop drugs that reactivate protein phosphatase 2A, a tumor suppressor that has been difficult to drug. Funders include Novartis Venture Fund and Novo Holdings.

Evotec has secured $235 million from Mubadala Investment, Abu Dhabi’s investment arm. The German drug discovery and development firm also received $59 million from Novo Holdings, a longtime shareholder.

Roche paid close to $100 million for Enterprise Therapeutics’ TMEM16A potentiator family of cystic fibrosis treatments. The portfolio, including a molecule that recently entered Phase 1 trials, will be developed by Roche’s Genentech unit.