Business Roundup

DuPont will increase production capacity in Michigan for its Liveo line of silicones for medical applications. DuPont launched the brand earlier this year with products formerly marketed under the Dow Corning and Silastic names.

Piramal Pharma has bought out Navin Fluorine in their specialty fluorochemical joint venture, Convergence Chemicals. The Indian venture’s main product is a starting material for Piramal’s anesthetic products.

Brenntag has signed an agreement with CheMondis, an online marketplace for chemicals in Europe. The Germany-based chemical distributor plans to make paints, coatings, and adhesives available on CheMondis for the German market.

Icosavax has received $16.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Open Philanthropy to fund a Phase 1 clinical trial of a virus-like particle vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine was designed by Neil King and colleagues at the University of Washington.

PerkinElmer will acquire Horizon Discovery for about $383 million in cash. Horizon sells customized CRISPR gene-editing reagents, gene-edited cell lines, and RNAi molecules to researchers. It reported $75.5 million in revenue last year.

AstraZeneca will work with Fusion Pharmaceuticals to develop cancer-fighting radiopharmaceuticals using Fusion’s technology. The goal is to bind the α-emitting isotope actinium-225 to antibodies in AstraZeneca’s oncology drug portfolio.

Merck KGaA will be the contract manufacturer for Mammoth Biosciences’ new CRISPR-based SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic kit, for which it recently won funding from the US National Institutes of Health. Merck will carry out production in Saint Louis.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations will invest up to $328 million in a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese firm Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals. A Phase 2/3 study will begin by the end of 2020.