Business Roundup

Lotte and Westlake Chemical have completed their $3.1 billion ethylene complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The complex includes a 1 million-metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker and a $1.1 billion ethylene glycol plant that Lotte, a South Korean firm, constructed.

Perstorp plans to build a 12,000-metric-ton-per-year plant for granular sodium formate—a deicing material for runways—in Perstorp, Sweden, to open before winter. The material has a lower carbon footprint and less potential to contaminate water than other deicers, Perstorp claims.

Archroma has opened a technology and marketing competence center for automotive and synthetic dyes in Korschenbroich, Germany. The new facility joins Archroma centers for special dyes in Barcelona, Spain, and for textile finishing in Reinach, Switzerland.

BASF will market water-soluble casein films from the French firm Lactips to the home care and industrial cleaning markets. The partners see an opportunity to replace polyvinyl alcohol detergent wrappers with films made from the milk by-product.

Henkel has acquired Molecule Corp., a 3-D printing technology firm. Molecule’s California technology and engineering center will broaden Henkel’s 3-D printing footprint, the German company says.

Codexis has licensed its CodeEvolver protein-engineering technology to Novartis for use in developing enzymes for drug production. In 2015 Codexis signed similar deals with GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co.

CinCor Pharma has licensed global rights to a Roche aldolsterone synthase inhibitor that it will develop for treating hypertension. CinCor completed a $50 million series A financing round led by Sofinnova Investments.

Civica Rx, a nonprofit formed to reduce generic-drug shortages, has picked Xellia Pharmaceuticals to manufacture its first two products: the antibiotics vancomycin and daptomycin. Civica plans to launch 14 essential generics this year.