Business Watch: Evonik to cut 3,200 jobs; AbbVie buys Apogee for almost $11 billion

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On May 27, we published a piece by C&EN business reporter Matt Blois about efforts to extract heavy rare earth elements in Brazil. China has a virtual monopoly on these critical materials, and governments around the world are looking for new sources.

About 10 days later, the Wall Street Journal published its own story on extracting rare earths in Brazil. It was a good story, but it lacked the chemical detail that C&EN’s readers enjoy.

On June 1, C&EN published a story by business reporter Craig Bettenhausen about a flurry of new solid-form cleaning products and the chemistry behind them. The one attracting the most attention is Procter & Gamble’s Tide evo laundry detergent. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal came out with its own story about the Tide laundry “tiles.”

The Journal is one of the great American newspapers, and both its stories were unsurprisingly good. But when it comes to technology-rich news about the chemical industry, C&EN is often first and almost always better. Thanks for supporting us.

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Business in brief

Evonik to cut 3,200 jobs as part of a major restructuring

Evonik Industries is planning another restructuring, this time eliminating 3,200 jobs, shutting down its polyester business, and selling pharmaceutical ingredient assets in Germany. The job cuts, which represent about 10% of Evonik’s workforce, follow an earlier restructuring round in which the company seeks to shed 2,800 employees. Some 2,150 of the new cuts will be in Germany, where Evonik employs nearly 18,000 workers. It says the cuts will come through increased efficiency, digitization, and outsourcing. “The global political situation remains uncertain, and economic growth is persistently weak. At the same time, international competition is becoming increasingly fierce,” CEO Christian Kullmann says in a statement. Evonik also plans to shutter its polyester business, which makes polyester resins for coatings in Witten, Germany, next year. The company says the business has annual sales of about $170 million “but has not been profitable in years.” The firm had tried selling it in 2024. Finally, Evonik is selling production assets for pharmaceutical ingredients in Hanau, Germany, to the contract manufacturer ProChem Group. Evonik will continue to make pharmaceutical lipids at the site.

—Alex Tullo

Kemira and IFF move and delay biobased chemical plant

The chemical makers Kemira and International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) are altering but not canceling their plans for a biobased chemical plant in Finland based on IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials technology. The $148 million facility is to be a 50:50 joint venture that will convert sugars to specialty polysaccharides. The change moves the project 270 km east along Finland’s southern coast, from Kotka to Hanko, and delays its completion 2 years, to 2029. The firms did not specify the reason for the relocation. Kemira has exclusive rights to commercialize the polymers for paper, wood, and water treatment applications. IFF is also working with BASF on applications in cleaning and personal care.

—Craig Bettenhausen

Styrolution to close polystyrene plant in Illinois

Facing competitive pressures, Ineos Styrolution plans to close its polystyrene plant in Channahon, Illinois, by the end of the year. The plant employs 100 people and can make 400,000 metric tons of the polymer annually. Last year, the company closed a styrene plant site in Sarnia, Ontario. Styrolution says it will continue to operate polystyrene plants in Decatur, Alabama, and Altamira, Mexico, as well as a market development center in Channahon. “Following a thorough evaluation of market conditions, industry utilization rates, the site’s cost structure and long-term outlook, we have concluded that continuing operations at Channahon is no longer economically viable,” Styrolution CEO Steve Harrington says in an announcement. Separately, Americas Styrenics, a polystyrene joint venture between Chevon Phillips Chemical and Trinseo, has idled a polystyrene plant in Torrance, California. While the plant is inactive, the site will distribute polystyrene made at other facilities, the company says.

—Alex Tullo

VanDeMark Chemical is acquired by Valiant Energy Management

VanDeMark Chemical, one of the only US merchant sellers of phosgene derivatives, has been acquired by Valiant Energy Management for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 1951, VanDeMark operates a plant in Lockport, New York, that was scheduled to close by May 25, according to a mandatory Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice the firm posted earlier this year. VanDeMark was most recently owned by the private equity firm SK Capital Partners. On its LinkedIn page, Valiant describes itself as “an institutional investor and operator focused on opportunistic acquisitions across the energy and industrial sectors.” SK sold a VanDeMark subsidiary, the Hungarian phosgene derivative maker FramoChem, to Japan’s Hodogaya Chemical earlier this year.

—Michael McCoy

Covestro works on continuous biobased process for aniline

Covestro is leading a European Union project to develop a continuous biobased process for aniline, a raw material used to make products including the polyurethane intermediate methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. The research project, Bio-Based Continuous Production for Sustainable Polyurethane Industry, will run until December 2029. It has $10 million in funding, of which $8 million is from the EU. Nine other organizations are participating. Covestro, one of the world’s leading aniline producers, has already developed a batch process for making the intermediate from biomass. The partners plan to test out any continuous biobased process in a pilot facility near Ghent, Belgium, operated by Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant. The world produces about 7 million metric tons (t) of aniline annually from fossil fuels, resulting in the release of about 20 million t of carbon dioxide. Making aniline from biomass substantially reduces the chemical’s carbon footprint, the partners say.

—Alex Scott

Synthomer to sell acrylic monomer business to Mutares

The British specialty chemical maker Synthomer has agreed to sell its acrylate monomer business to the industrial holding company Mutares. The business, which makes acrylic acid and acrylic esters, has annual sales of about $125 million and employs 300 workers at a plant in the Czech Republic. The business will continue to supply Synthomer with acrylic dispersions and monomers. Synthomer says the sale will allow it to focus on its core specialty chemical business. In January, Mutares agreed to purchase Sabic’s engineering polymer business in Europe and the Americas in a deal worth $450 million.

—Alex Tullo

FMC and Corteva partner to sell new herbicide rimisoxafen

FMC and Corteva Agriscience will partner to sell rimisoxafen, a molecule discovered by FMC that was recently classified as the first herbicide with two different modes of action. Corteva will prepurchase $200 million of rimisoxafen from FMC and sell a formulated product to corn and soybean farmers in North and South America. FMC will continue to develop rimisoxafen for other crops and regions. The companies say weeds will be less likely to evolve resistance to a molecule with two modes of action. FMC says it plans to start the regulatory approval process this year and expects commercial sales by the end of the decade. Farmers have long complained that weeds are developing resistance to old herbicides, but few new modes of action are being discovered. In addition to rimisoxafen, FMC introduced tetflupyrolimet, a rice herbicide with a previously unknown mode of action, in 2025. Last year, Bayer submitted registration applications for icafolin-methyl, a molecule with a new mode of action for broadacre crops.

—Matt Blois

Quote of the week

Brewer Science to buy semiconductor chemicals unit from Heraeus Epurio

The specialty materials company Brewer Science has agreed to buy the semiconductor chemical maker Heraeus Epurio for an undisclosed sum. Heraeus specializes in photoacid generators, photoinitiators, monomers, cross-linkers, and other ultrapure chemicals needed by semiconductor manufacturing plants. The deal includes Heraeus’s manufacturing site near Dayton, Ohio, its business in Asia, and all its employees. In a press release, Brewer says the purchase will complement its expertise in semiconductor lithography and packaging materials.

—Craig Bettenhausen

Manus to produce monk fruit sweetener by fermentation

The biotechnology firm Manus has started producing commercial quantities of the monk fruit component mogroside V by fermentation. The zero-calorie molecule, which is 350 times sweeter than sugar, is usually extracted from monk fruit grown in China. Manus says making mogroside V via fermentation will ensure quality and price consistency and consume fewer resources than conventional farming. Manus already produces a fermentation-derived stevia sweetener at its facility in Georgia, which once made the synthetic low-calorie sweetener aspartame. In March, MycoTechnology launched a fermentation-derived sweetener, a protein from honey truffle, in the US after self-affirming the ingredient is safe.

—Matt Blois

AbbVie to expand eczema offerings with $10.9 billion Apogee acquisition

AbbVie will expand its eczema drug portfolio by purchasing the antibody drug developer Apogee Therapeutics and its late-phase eczema drug candidate, zumilokibart, for $10.9 billion. Zumilokibart is a monoclonal antibody targeting the IL-3 receptor, which helps transmit cytokine signals as part of the immune system. The developmental molecule has shown promising results in Phase 2 trials for atopic dermatitis and may have utility for other inflammatory diseases, such as asthma. AbbVie already markets two eczema treatments, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, that together logged $26 billion in sales last year. Apogee also has several other antibodies in development.

—Max Barnhart

Nortiva launches from Langer and Traverso labs for long-acting drugs

Nortiva Bio has launched with science from the labs of Robert Langer and Giovanni Traverso, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nortiva says its Lynx drug delivery platform can make oral drugs last long enough to be taken just once a month. During that time, drug-containing elements in a pill stay in the stomach and release a consistent dosage until passing out of the body. Nortiva is a subsidiary of Innoviva. That firm acquired the Lynx platform from Lyndra Therapeutics last year after Lyndra, a Langer lab spin-off also seeking to develop long-acting drug formulas, went out of business. Development of Nortiva’s lead drug candidate, a monthly contraceptive, is funded partially by $5 million from the Gates Foundation.

—Sarah Braner

Lilly acquires nonopioid pain drugmaker 4E Therapeutics

Eli Lilly and Company is continuing its acquisition spree. The pharma giant’s latest purchase is 4E Therapeutics, an Austin, Texas–based company that is developing nonaddictive small molecules for chronic pain. 4E is focused on nonopioid molecules that inhibit the activity of specific kinases in signaling pathways in peripheral sensory neurons that are implicated in pain. “The compounds are intended to deliver meaningful pain relief while avoiding the central nervous system effects associated with many existing therapeutics,” 4E says in a press release. The company’s most advanced candidate, 4ET1103, is being studied in an early-stage clinical trial in humans. The two companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.

—Aayushi Pratap

Insilico, SK Biopharmaceuticals strike deal for AI drug discovery

Insilico Medicine, an artificial intelligence–driven drug company, and SK Biopharmaceuticals have partnered to discover drugs for neuroimmune disorders. Insilico will receive up to $18 million in up-front and near-term milestone payments and could receive over $2.5 billion in future payments if jointly discovered drugs are approved for sale, the companies announced at the BIO International Convention 2026. Insilico will use its AI platform for target validation and designing drug candidates, while SK will extend its expertise in drug development and clinical trials.

—Aayushi Pratap

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