Business Roundup

Italmatch Chemicals, an Italian chemical maker, has acquired Compass Chemical, a Smyrna, Ga.-based maker of organophosphonates and other chemicals for water treatment and oil and gas applications, from the private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners. The deal follows Italmatch’s purchase earlier this year of a similar Solvay business and its 2013 buy of phosphonates assets from Thermphos International.

Stepan will expand its polyester polyol plant in Brzeg Dolny, Poland, by adding a new reactor. The company says it has also relocated its European R&D and technical service center to new laboratories in Wrocław, Poland.

BASF has postponed a final investment decision for its proposed methane-to-propylene plant in Freeport, Texas, because of volatile raw material prices. The company says it will continue to keep an eye on market conditions in case it wants to resuscitate the project.

Cargill has received a so-called no-objection letter from FDA, allowing it to market a new form of stevia sweetener as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. The company worked with Evolva to develop a route to make two steviol glycosides, called rebaudioside M and D, via fermentation from sugar rather than by extracting the relatively rare compounds from the stevia plant.

Grodno Azot, a state-owned enterprise in Grodno, Belarus, was the scene of a deadly accident last week. There, two workers were killed after inhaling fumes from a smoky fire at a nitrogen fertilizer plant.

5AM Venture Management has raised $285 million for a life sciences venture capital fund. The money will finance early-stage companies developing drugs, drug delivery technology, instrumentation, and reagents.

Amyris has signed a research agreement with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to use the Amyris technology platform to develop a library of natural and natural-like compounds. Researchers will test the compounds’ efficacy against a target identified by Janssen using in vivo testing.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has teamed with Roivant Sciences to form Myovant Sciences. Myovant has been granted the rights to Takeda’s relugolix, currently in late-stage studies for the treatment of uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and prostate cancer, as well as TAK-448 for the treatment of infertility in women.