Business Watch: Origin Materials to shut down; biotech IPOs boom

Last May, C&EN launched a new column called Eye on Patents. (The following month we debuted another new column, Greening Chemistry.) The first six installments of Eye on Patents were collaborations with CAS, which, like C&EN, is part of the American Chemical Society. They explore trends in chemistry-related patenting with the help of data from CAS, an expert in scientific knowledge management.

While continuing our partnership with CAS, yesterday we published the first outside-written Eye on Patents column, an essay with supporting data from the patent strategist Jason Lye. His piece chronicles China’s rise to become the world’s most prolific filer of chemistry patents. China is not yet a global leader in terms of the quality of its patents, but Lye concludes that it is quickly closing the gap with leaders like the US.

If you have ideas for Eye on Patents columns, pleases email me, Michael McCoy, C&EN’s business editor, at [email protected]. I’ll take business story ideas and other feedback as well.

Top stories from C&EN

Business in brief

Chloromethylfurfural developer Origin Materials to shut down

Origin Materials, once a start-up with bright prospects in biobased chemicals, is selling off its technology and winding down operations. When it went public in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, Origin had been developing a technology to convert cellulosic biomass into chloromethylfurfural, which it proposed as a precursor for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a polymer used in soda bottles. The company was building a plant in Sarnia, Ontario, and had a larger facility on the drawing board for Geismar, Louisiana. But in 2023, it abruptly changed focus to PET bottle caps, which it said would be more recyclable than traditional polyolefin-based caps when used on PET bottles. Origin says it was unable to secure additional capital to finance its bottle cap plan and was forced to close shop.

—Alex Tullo

Ineos to sell sulfur chemical business to Ecovyst

Ineos Enterprises has agreed to sell its Calabrian sulfur chemical business to Ecovyst in a transaction valued at $190 million. The deal includes plants that make sulfur dioxide and related sulfur derivatives in Port Neches, Texas, and Timmins, Ontario. Ineos acquired Calabrian in 2016 from the investment firm SK Capital Partners. It says in a press release that it has improved safety, operational performance, and financial results at Calabrian but that the firm no longer fits with its long-term portfolio. Ecovyst, a provider of virgin and regenerated sulfuric acid, says Calabrian will diversify its portfolio while leveraging its sulfur chemistry expertise.

—Michael McCoy

LyondellBasell completes sale of European plants to form Velogy

LyondellBasell Industries has completed the sale of several of its European petrochemical and polymer plants to the European industrial turnaround firm Aequita. The sale includes ethylene crackers and polyolefin plants in Berre, France, and Münchsmünster, Germany, and polypropylene plants in Carrington, England, and Tarragona, Spain. The sites will operate together as Velogy, a business that will have 1,700 employees and annual sales of about $2.9 billion. LyondellBasell expects to record a loss of up to $900 million from the transaction. In January, Aequita signed an agreement to purchase Sabic’s European petrochemical business, which also makes olefins and polyolefins and has about $3.5 billion in annual sales.

—Alex Tullo

Ineos to host Texas low-carbon methanol plant

Ineos has become a partner in a low-carbon methanol plant planned for the Gulf Coast. The plant, to be built by Sandpiper Chemicals, is expected to have 1.1 million metric tons (t) per year of methanol capacity and cost $1.7 billion. It will produce the methanol from natural gas and sequester carbon dioxide emissions. As part of the collaboration, Ineos will invest in Sandpiper, situate the plant at its Texas City, Texas, complex, and buy 300,000 t per year of methanol from Sandpiper as a raw material for making acetic acid. The two companies hope to reach a final investment decision next year and complete the plant in 2030.

—Alex Tullo

Two Indian companies to restart amines plants

Balaji Amines, an Indian amine maker that had suspended production because of ammonia shortages caused by the Iran war, says it is beginning to reactivate production. Ammonia availability has started improving, thus allowing for “gradual” resumption of production of methylamines, ethylamines, and their derivatives, Balaji says in a press release PDF. “The Company continues to closely monitor the situation and remains in active discussion with alternative suppliers to ensure long-term stability in the procurement of raw materials.” Another Indian player, Alkyl Amines Chemicals, which halted production in March for similar reasons, is also beginning to restart manufacturing. “While the overall Ammonia supply situation continues to remain uncertain and dynamic, it has improved enough to enable us to restart in a gradual manner the production of Ammonia based products,” the company says in a press release PDF.

—Aayushi Pratap

Investment firm Lone Star to buy Domo business

The investment firm Lone Star Funds plans to acquire Domo Chemicals’ engineered materials business, which makes nylon-based compounds for the automotive, electronic, construction, and industrial sectors. Earlier this year, Domo subsidiaries in Germany making the nylon precursor caprolactam filed for insolvency. The firm says it faced high energy costs, weak demand, and competition from China. The Domo acquisition follows Lone Star’s 2025 announcement that it would purchase RadiciGroup’s polymer and specialty chemical businesses; that deal is now complete. RadiciGroup makes nylon polymers and biobased chemicals for industries including water management, transportation, and appliances. Combining the two businesses will create a strong polymer compounder, Lone Star says.

—Matt Blois

Dispersa scales up waste-derived biosurfactants in North America

A common critique of industrial biotechnology is that most microbes that can generate chemicals and fuels do so by consuming edible sugars and plant oils, making the products only as environmentally friendly as the farming practices that underpin the feedstocks. The biotechnology start-up Dispersa is scaling up its answer to that problem—a sophorolipid surfactant made by fermenting food and agricultural waste. The Canadian firm began production this week at a commercial-scale plant and plans to start up a 50,000 L fermenter later this year. Dispersa received US regulatory approval for its flagship surfactant blend in late April, clearing it for use in home, industrial, and institutional cleaning products. CEO Nivatha Balendra says using food waste vastly improves the sustainability of the surfactants and, at scale, will make them less expensive than surfactants produced from edible feedstocks.

—Craig Bettenhausen

Quote of the week

BioMade to fund 14 biomanufacturing projects

The public-private partnership BioMade is providing a total of $21 million to 14 biomanufacturing projects in the US with the goal of improving national security. The funding comes from the US Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. The projects span a long list of biomanufacturing topics. For example, AlkaLi Labs will receive funding for a microbial method of extracting lithium from wastewater generated by the oil and gas industries. Mango Materials hopes the funding will help it reduce the cost of making the biodegradable plastics known as polyhydroxyalkanoates. BioMade selected a Roke Biotechnologies project to investigate materials used in tests and countermeasures for new diseases. The funding will also help develop a stronger biomanufacturing workforce by sponsoring an apprenticeship program at Manus.

—Matt Blois

Novartis to build drug chemical facility in North Carolina

Novartis says it will build a facility in Morrisville, North Carolina, to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for its commercial drugs and therapies under development. The project is part of the company’s plans to invest $23 billion in US manufacturing. The 5,200 m² facility will make ingredients for solid-dosage tablets, capsules, and RNA therapeutics, Novartis says in a press release. “Last year we committed to adding seven new facilities in the US, and today we finalize our plans to expand our US manufacturing and R&D footprint in the US,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan says in the release. The company’s plans to expand US manufacturing are part of a broader trend among Big Pharma companies, which have made splashy investment announcements to avoid paying tariffs threatened by President Donald J. Trump on imported goods.

—Aayushi Pratap

Biotechs rush the Nasdaq in a spate of IPOs

Biotech IPOs are back, baby. Over the past week, three companies held initial public offerings, raising a collective $856 million. The lung disease drug developer Avalyn Pharma listed first, raising $300 million on April 29. The next day, Seaport Therapeutics—a neuroscience start-up launched by former PureTech Health executive Daphne Zohar in 2024—raised $255 million in its own offering, while the blood disorder drug developer Hemab Therapeutics raised $302 million. The rain of biotech IPOs after a yearslong drought is welcome news for investors who have been awaiting exit opportunities. Ten biotech firms have gone public so far this year, including Kailera Therapeutics, which smashed the record for largest biotech IPO just last month.

—Rowan Walrath

UCB will buy cancer drug developer Candid for $2.2 billion

UCB has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Candid Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $2.2 billion. Candid’s lead therapeutic candidate, cizutamig, is a bispecific antibody that targets the CD3 antigen on the surface of T cells and the bispecific B-cell maturation antigen on the surface of multiple myeloma cells. Cizutamig is in Phase 1 clinical trials for multiple myeloma and several autoimmune diseases. The move shows UCB’s continuing interest in T-cell engagers. In March, the Belgian drug firm acquired the rights to develop and commercialize a T-cell engager from Antengene. Candid’s portfolio also includes drug candidates that target B cells.

—Max Barnhart

Chiesi Group agrees to buy KalVista for $1.9 billion

The Italian rare disease drug firm Chiesi Group is slated to buy KalVista Pharmaceuticals in a deal that values the US- and UK-based company at $1.9 billion. Launched in 2011 with backing from the investment arm of Novo Nordisk, KalVista is developing small-molecule protease inhibitors for diseases involving the kallikrein-kinin system. Its drug Ekterly (sebetralstat) was approved in the US last July for acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE), a rare and serious genetic disease in which blood vessels leak fluid that causes swelling throughout the body. The acquisition reflects ongoing interest in new drugs for HAE, which remains “a hotbed of M&A and strategic activity,” Leerink Partners analyst Joseph P. Schwartz writes in a research note.

—Rowan Walrath

What we’re reading