Business Roundup

Indorama, a Thai polyester producer, plans to build facilities in India to produce purified terephthalic acid, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyester fiber. Although the capacities of the plants are still to be determined, Indorama says they will cost about $700 million and be integrated with a third-party p-xylene supplier.

BASF has agreed to sell its 50% stake in its French fertilizer joint venture, PEC-Rhin, to its partner Total. BASF originally intended to sell the stake to Russia’s EuroChem with the rest of its fertilizer business, but PEC-Rhin had a preemptive option to buy the plant. Borealis also made an offer for it.

Avantium has entered a partnership with Rhodia to develop biobased polyamides using Avantium’s furanic raw materials platform. The collaboration builds on a previous agreement between Avantium and Rhodia’s parent, Solvay, in engineering polymers.

LanzaTech has raised $55.8 million in venture capital in a funding round led by the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. LanzaTech says the funds will accelerate its development of biorefineries that produce chemicals and fuels.

Ampac Fine Chemicals has been granted registration as a manufacturer of controlled substances by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The firm says its entry into the controlled-substances field is enabled by a commercial arrangement with a large drug company.

Watson Pharmaceuticals has paid $393 million to acquire Ascent Pharmahealth, the Australian and Southeast Asian arm of India’s Strides Arcolab. Ascent, which has about 300 employees, had sales of roughly $157 million last year.

Genzyme can restart Fabrazyme production at its Framingham, Mass., plant after receiving approvals from FDA and the European Medicines Agency. During 2012, Genzyme expects to restore supply of the enzyme-replacement therapy and return patients to full dosing levels.

Ipsen has returned to Santhera Pharmaceuticals the global marketing rights to fipamezole, which is in development to treat levodopa-induced dyskinesia in people with Parkinson’s disease. In 2010, Ipsen paid roughly $16 million for access to fipamezole, a highly selective adrenergic α₂ receptor antagonist.

Sanofi will collaborate on a potential treatment for tuberculosis with Iwao Ojima, director of the Institute of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Ojima has discovered benzimidazole-based compounds that inhibit bacterial cell division.