Business Roundup

BASF plans to spend “double-digit millions” of dollars to expand its platinum-group-metal recycling capacity in Seneca, South Carolina. Sources of the metal will include spent catalysts like automotive catalytic converters.

LanzaTech and BASF say they have achieved laboratory-scale production of 1-octanol via bacterial fermentation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The firms say they now aim to develop an efficient process for large-scale production.

Novasep will spend about $4.8 million to expand manufacture of high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients for antibody-drug conjugates at its Le Mans, France, site. The effort will create about 30 jobs. The drug services firm opened a $14 million bioconjugation facility in Le Mans in 2017.

Catalent has added a 3,000 m² facility to its cell and gene therapy site in Gosselies, Belgium, with the acquisition of a subsidiary of Promethera Biosciences. The operation is adjacent to a plant Catalent recently bought from Delphi Genetics. The new site is equipped to make plasmid DNA in vessels of up to 500 L.

Sterling Pharma Solutions will manufacture clinical quantities of a platinum-resistant oncology drug candidate for OncoTex. The British drug services firm will do the work at its Germantown, Wisconsin, plant, which specializes in high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Evotec and Bristol Myers Squibb have launched a $20 million program called beLAB1407 to promote drug discovery at academic institutions in the UK. The firms recently started a similar program in Germany.

BioNTech plans to build a facility in Singapore to produce messenger RNA for vaccines and drugs. The facility is set to open in early 2023 and create up to 80 jobs.

Sanofi has established a 3-year collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine to study auto­immune diseases and inflammatory conditions. Sanofi will fund up to three projects a year, beginning with projects on arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and type 2 inflammation.