Business Roundup

Mitsubishi Chemical has purchased land along the Mississippi River in ­Geismar, Louisiana, to build a 350,000-metric-ton-per-year methyl methacrylate plant that uses its novel Alpha technology. The company expects to make a final investment decision in 2022 and complete the plant in 2025.

Mosaic, a fertilizer maker, and the agricultural microbe firm BioConsortia plan to develop nitrogen-fixing microbes for crops including corn and wheat. The microbes can help farmers reduce reliance on synthetic nitrogen and decrease losses of the nutrient to air and water, the firms say.

Ultrapar, a Brazilian conglomerate, says it is evaluating strategic alternatives, including a sale, for its Oxiteno specialty chemical business. Ultrapar says it wants to focus on oil and gas.

Ginkgo Bioworks has acquired the main assets of Novogy, a developer of oil-generating yeasts, from Total. Novogy’s strains, particularly of Yarrowia lipolytica, will help speed development of biobased oils for commodities and fine chemicals, Ginkgo says.

UbiQD has closed a $7 million series A funding round. UbiQD will use the money for R&D and to roll out its first product, a quantum-dot-infused film called UbiGro. The film converts light that plants can’t use into wavelengths that support photosynthesis.

Umicore has acquired phosphine-bearing ylide ligands from Ruhr University Bochum for use in cross-coupling catalysis. When coupled with specific palladium catalysts, the ligands outperform other phosphine catalyst systems, Umicore says.

Merck KGaA and the ­British firm Artios Pharma will work together to develop cancer treatments based on Artios’s DNA repair nuclease inhibitors. Artios will get $30 million up front plus milestone payments.

Enveda Biosciences has raised $4.9 million in a seed-funding round that will help it turn novel molecules from plants into medicines. The San Francisco–based firm says it runs the world’s largest database of chemical and biological information about medicinal plants.