Business Roundup

Bartek Ingredients, a maker of malic acid and fumaric acid, has been acquired by the private equity firm TorQuest Partners. Ontario, Canada-based Bartek employs 115 people and makes the acidulants for food and beverages.

Ajinomoto will spend $4 million to expand production of amino acid surfactants at its Tokai plant in Japan by 70%. The flake-shaped materials are used to manufacture personal care ingredients found in shampoos, face and body washes, and other toiletry items.

BASF has entered the instrumentation market with a chip-sized near-infrared sensor. The semiconductor sensor may find its way into smartphones by 2022 to measure things such as fat in foods or skin moisture for cosmetic selection.

AstraZeneca has agreed to sell the U.S. rights to Synagis, a monoclonal antibody drug for the prevention of lower respiratory tract infection in infants, to Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) for an up-front payment of $1.5 billion. The deal also gives Sobi rights in the U.S. to MEDI8897, a respiratory tract infection therapy that AstraZeneca will continue to develop with Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi.

Alphamab Oncology, based in Suzhou, China, has raised $100 million from institutional investors. The company has four antibody-based cancer drugs in early phases of clinical trials in China and Australia.