Business Roundup

SK Capital Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in chemicals, has raised $2.1 billion for a new fund. Current SK portfolio companies include SI Group, TPC Group, and Ascend Performance Materials.

Evonik Industries plans to add a line at its hydrogen peroxide plant in Antwerp, Belgium, increasing capacity there by 50%. The German firm is also in the process of acquiring the US hydro­gen peroxide producer PeroxyChem.

Nufarm has acquired Trunemco, a new seed treatment used to ward off hungry nematodes, from BASF. The treatment, which combines a microorganism and a biochemical, is expected to launch this year in the US.

S-Biomedic, a developer of microbiome-inspired bacterial treatments for therapeutic and cosmetic applications, has raised $4.6 million in series A funding from investors, including DSM. The start-up is a resident of Johnson & Johnson’s incubator in Belgium.

Saudi Aramco will buy a 9% stake in Zhejiang Petrochemical, which is building a crude-to-chemicals complex in Zhoushan, China. About half the 800,000 barrels per day of oil processed by the facility will be transformed into chemicals such as p-xylene and ethylene.

Anthos Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based start-up, has launched with $250 million from the private equity firm Blackstone Life Sciences. Anthos licensed an antibody from Novartis that targets two blood-clotting proteins. It plans to test it in people with a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Lonza will manufacture 2'-fucosyllactose, a humanmilk oligosaccharide, for DuPont Nutrition & Health. DuPont says HMOs are part of a larger microbiome investment strategy that includes scalable production methods.

Novartis has exercised an option to license AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx from Ionis Pharmaceuticals and its affiliate Akcea Therapeutics by paying a $150 million fee. The drug is an antisense compound being developed to treat cardiovascular disease.