Business Roundup

DSM Nutritional Products will pay $50 million to the biotech firm Amyris for a license to supply farnesene to the flavor and fragrance firm Givaudan. Givaudan uses farnesene, made via fermentation from sugar, to produce an unnamed ingredient.

DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences will partner with Kemira to develop and commercialize biomaterials. The pact will combine DuPont’s enzyme-enabled engineered polysaccharide capability with Kemira’s application expertise in the pulp and paper, water treatment, and oil and gas industries.

WuXi Biologics will acquire a Bayer biologic drug facility in Wuppertal, Germany. WuXi says the 30,000 m² facility will complement its existing and planned contract manufacturing plants in China, Ireland, and the US.

Neomorph, a biotech firm founded by Deerfield Management, has launched with $109 million in funding to develop “molecular glue” small-molecule therapies for targeted protein degradation. The firm’s scientific founders are Phil Chamberlain, formerly of Celgene, and three scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Twist Bioscience will build a factory outside Portland, Oregon, that will more than double its capacity to manufacture synthetic DNA. Twist says the facility could employ up to 400 people in the coming years.

Novartis will acquire its neuroscience drug discovery partner Cadent Therapeutics for $210 million. Cadent is developing allosteric SK channel modulators for essential tremor and spinocerebellar ataxia, and NMDA receptor modulators for schizophrenia and depression.

Lonza will expand capacity to conjugate antibodies and small molecules at its facility in Visp, Switzerland. The project will increase the site’s clinical and commercial conjugation capacity by 30%.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has formed a partnership with Skyhawk Therapeutics—one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2019—to develop small molecules that modulate RNA splicing. Skyhawk will earn $40 million up front and up to $2.2 billion in milestone payments.