Business Roundup

Evonik Industries has opened a technical support center in Hsinchu, Taiwan, for its line of ­iXsenic metal oxides, which are used in the production of flat-panel displays. The center is equipped with its own clean room and provides access to a pilot production line owned by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute, a government agency.

Altana has opened a $50 million expansion of its specialty additives facility in Wallingford, Conn. The facility doubles production capacity in the U.S. for the additives, which are used in coatings, inks, and plastics to impart properties such as gloss and scratch resistance.

Trinseo stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday under the ticker symbol TSE. The styrenic polymers maker, formerly known as Styron, raised $190 million in its initial public offering, not counting an option for the underwriters to purchase nearly $30 million worth of shares.

Calumet Specialty Products, a maker of specialty hydrocarbons and waxes, will become a partner with SGC Energia and Great Northern Project Development in a gas-to-liquids facility planned for Lake Charles, La. Calumet will invest $25 million for a 22% stake in the venture.Sasol andIneos are moving forward with plans to build a 470,000-metric-ton-per-year high-density polyethylene plant at Ineos’s La Porte, Texas, facility. They expect to start up the plant, which will use Ineos technology, in 2016.

Isis Pharmaceuticals has scored a $15 million milestone payment upon the start of a Phase I study for ISIS-AR_Rx, a cancer treatment being developed by AstraZeneca. The antisense drug ISIS-AR_Rx blocks the production of the androgen receptor, a target relevant in prostate cancer.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, of India, has opened a monoclonal antibody plant in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The facility is attached to Glenmark’s existing monoclonal antibody R&D facility at the same site. The new plant is designed for single-use bioreactors and houses a suite for producing cell banks.

Celgene is investing $25 million in NantHealth, a cloud-based health care software company in the NantWorks family that supports clinical research. Earlier this year, Celgene invested $75 million in the drug discovery firm NantBioScience, a sister company. ScinoPharm, a Taiwanese custom pharmaceuticals producer, will use its plant in China to supply the active ingredient in the drug burixafor to TaiGen Biotechnology, a Taiwanese biotech firm. A bone marrow stem cell mobilizer for the treatment of bone cancer that TaiGen discovered, burixafor is currently undergoing Phase II clinical trials in the U.S.