Business briefing for July 2

Sabic shuts UK ethylene cracker

The European chemical industry’s dire economics have claimed yet another victim: Sabic is permanently closing its 46-year-old Olefins 6 ethylene steam cracker in Wilton, Teesside, England. The cracker, which has capacity to produce almost 1 million metric tons per year of ethylene from naphtha feedstock, has been idle since a scheduled shutdown in October 2020. The UK union Unite says about 100 of its members may lose their jobs as a result of the closure. “It is a disgrace that valued workers are being threatened with redundancy by a profitable company,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says in a press release. Sabic had been due to convert the cracker to run on natural gas feedstock. The Saudi Arabian firm reportedly will continue to operate a low-density polyethylene plant at the Teesside site. Sabic closed a cracker in Geleen, the Netherlands, in 2024. Analysts forecast that a swath of ethylene crackers and other petrochemical plants in Europe will close in the next few years because of their relative inefficiency and the region’s high energy costs and carbon emission charges.—ALEX SCOTT

Korea’s Posco considers US lithium project

The South Korean steelmaker Posco has signed an agreement with Anson Resources to build a direct lithium extraction (DLE) demonstration plant in Utah that uses Anson's technology. Earlier this year, Posco announced that it would delay a major lithium project in Argentina because of low demand for the battery ingredient. Despite reduced demand and prices, lithium extraction projects based on DLE are advancing in the US. Regulators in Arkansas set the royalty rate for Standard Lithium’s DLE plant in April and are now reviewing a similar deal for ExxonMobil’s plant. In June, Chevron announced plans for DLE plants in Texas and Arkansas.—MATT BLOIS

Novoloop raises $21 million to further plastics recycling technology

The plastics recycling firm Novoloop has raised $21 million in a series B financing round led by Taranis, an investment arm of the oil and gas company Perenco. The round brings the amount that the Menlo Park, California–based company has raised to over $50 million. Many companies are using pyrolysis to break down polyolefins like polyethylene into a bitumen-like feedstock that refining and petrochemical plants can turn back into polymer feedstocks. In contrast, Novoloop is developing an accelerated thermal oxidative decomposition technology that transforms polyethylene directly into chemicals such as polyols. The company started a pilot plant in Surat, India, last year and plans a commercial facility.—ALEX TULLO

AbbVie scoops up Penn spin-off for $2.1 billion

AbbVie has agreed to spend up to $2.1 billion to buy Capstan Therapeutics, a start-up that launched in 2022 based on technology from the University of Pennsylvania. Capstan is developing immunological disease drug candidates that use lipid nanoparticles to deliver messenger RNA to certain T cells inside the body. The mRNA encodes chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T, therapies. The start-up's lead drug candidate targets a protein on the surface of B cells called CD19 that's involved in several autoimmune diseases. Capstan researchers reported early success in mice and monkeys and have begun to test the firm’s lead drug candidate in early human trials.—ROWAN WALRATH

Cellugy wins funds for biobased rheology agents

The Danish start-up Cellugy has secured $9.5 million from the European Commission’s Biocare4life project to accelerate commercialization of its biosourced cellulosic thickening agents, or rheology modifiers, for personal care products. Most of the $3.3 billion per year market for rheology modifiers is based on fossil fuel–derived carbomers and acrylates, which can enter the environment as microplastics, the firm says. Cellugy claims its EcoFLEXY rheology modifier is superior to existing biobased rheology modifiers such as xanthan and cellulose gums and eliminates the handling challenges associated with nanocellulose alternatives.—ALEX SCOTT

Plastic-to-hydrogen start-up raises $20 million

The clean hydrogen start-up Elemental Advanced Materials has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Taranis, an investment arm of the European oil company Perenco. Elemental says it will use the money to scale up its single-step thermochemical process for converting plastics into hydrogen and structured solid-phase carbon materials like graphene and nano-onions. It says that other possible feedstocks are hydrocarbon gases such as propane or methane and discarded electronics, from which it can recover critical minerals.—CRAIG BETTENHAUSEN

Feliqs raises $9 million for rare pediatric disease drugs

The Japanese biotechnology company Feliqs has closed a $9 million series A financing round. The start-up says it will use the funds to advance a drug candidate called FLQ-101, a once-daily small molecule designed to prevent retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that afflicts babies who were born prematurely or weigh less than about 1.4 kg. These babies are at risk of retinal detachment and subsequent blindness because abnormal blood vessels develop in the retina. An unnamed “major American pharmaceutical company” co-led Feliqs’s financing with Beyond Next Ventures, according to a press release.—ROWAN WALRATH

Portal raises $35 million for single-molecule protein sequencer

Portal Biotech, a single-molecule protein sequencing company, has launched with $35 million in an oversubscribed series A financing round. The funding was co-led by the NATO Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO countries that aims to invest over $1.2 billion in new technologies. Portal claims to be delivering the world’s first single-molecule protein sequencing using nanopore sequencing technology, a method similar to the nucleic acid sequencing developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Pacific Biosciences. An international patent published by Portal’s cofounder and chief scientific officer, Giovanni Maglia, describes how a translocase attached to a protein of interest helps guide the protein through a nanopore with the help of an ionic gradient. As the protein moves through the nanopore, each residue generates an electrical signal that can be read to determine the protein sequence. But Portal has revealed few additional details, such as the technology’s cost or throughput.—MAX BARNHART

EuroAPI sells UK facility as part of restructuring

EuroAPI, a French pharmaceutical services company, has taken another step in the 4-year restructuring plan it outlined last year. The company has sold its Haverhill, England, spray drying facility for an undisclosed sum to Particle Dynamics, which specializes in spray drying and other particle processing and delivery technologies. As a part of the restructuring plan, called Focus-27, EuroAPI will also divest its Brindisi, Italy, site and cut nearly 550 jobs by 2027. Meanwhile, the company plans to expand its large-molecule manufacturing capacity in Budapest.—AAYUSHI PRATAP

Moderna trial results for flu vaccine

Moderna has announced positive Phase 3 clinical trial results for its messenger RNA–based flu vaccine, mRNA-1010. The company says mRNA-1010 had a 26.6% higher relative vaccine efficacy than a licensed standard-dose seasonal flu vaccine from GSK in nearly 41,000 adults 50 years and older across 11 countries who participated in the trial. It’s unclear what that measure of effectiveness is: Moderna’s jab could be better at preventing infections than the typical trivalent flu vaccine given in the US, or just better at preventing severe flu symptoms. The firm says it will present further details from its clinical trial at an upcoming medical conference. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines have been caught up in the general controversy in the US around vaccines, and its stock price has dropped 35% this year.—MAX BARNHART

Kymera enters molecular glue pact with Gilead

Kymera Therapeutics, a protein degradation firm, will work with Gilead Sciences to develop oral cancer treatments. Kymera will target cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), a newer oncology drug target. The firm says its molecular glue degraders don’t just inhibit CDK2’s function but remove the enzyme entirely, which should reduce side effects. Kymera will take the lead on research, while Gilead will develop, manufacture, and commercialize any products that arise from the collaboration. Kymera is eligible for up to $750 million in total payments, including $85 million up front. Separately, Kymera says it will advance its IRAK4 (interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4) degrader drug candidate, a product of its partnership with Sanofi, into clinical trials.—SARAH BRANER

Business Roundup

Kuraray will expand its capacity for polyvinyl alcohol film, used as a polarizing film in liquid crystal displays, in Ehime, Japan. The company expects that the new capacity will be ready by the end of 2027 and will increase its output of the film by more than 10%.

Kemira and Shanghai Bluepha Microbiology Technology plan a 3-year collaboration to develop polyhydroxyalkanoate-based barrier coatings for packaging and other paper goods. The biodegradable polymer, known as PHA, is an alternative to polyethylene and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Corteva will work with the French start-up Micropep to search for peptides that could become crop protection products. Corteva invested in Micropep's series B fundraising round last year and will have the right to sell products using peptides the firms identify.

Syensqo, a Belgian specialty chemical company that was spun off from Solvay in 2023, has partnered with Microsoft to leverage the software company’s artificial intelligence capabilities. Syensqo will use Microsoft’s AI and cloud computing platforms to accelerate innovation in biobased polymers, composites, and materials for clean energy.