Business Watch: Inovyn sells off Italian chlor-alkali assets; Lilly to buy Kelonia

We had a little taste of normalcy last week. On Friday, April 17, Iran opened up the Strait of Hormuz to traffic. Some 35 vessels transited, mostly outbound. This would be about a quarter of the prewar rate. But Iran then clamped down on the waterway, and shippers are back to square one. The war, it appears, will linger for a while longer.

C&EN editor Alex Scott posted a news story on the situation in Europe, which has been a big question mark throughout the crisis. One might think that it would be reeling from higher energy and feedstock costs. That has occurred, but the conflict has so far hit foreign competition, particularly from Asia, harder. The crisis has also caused downstream customers of the chemical industry to increase demand as they hunker down for possible shortages. On balance, the situation has been beneficial, at least temporarily, for some chemical companies.

The picture in Europe, and elsewhere, will come into sharper focus soon. Earnings season dawns with Dow’s first-quarter results Thursday. I would expect Jim Fitterling and incoming CEO Karen S. Carter to provide a regional breakdown of the impacts of the war.

Send any questions, comments, or tips to me, senior correspondent Alex Tullo, at [email protected].

Top stories for C&EN

• The Iran war has been a windfall for many European chemical makers as demand spikes and competition ebbs.
• Conventional attacks on industrial facilities pose a chemical warfare dilemma.
• A 7-month gap in the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs may have had lasting impacts.
• Karen S. Carter is to take the mantle of CEO at Dow from Jim Fitterling.

Business in brief

Hodogaya to buy phosgene chemical maker Framochem

Japan’s Hodogaya Chemical has agreed to acquire Framochem, a Hungarian producer of phosgene derivatives, in a deal valued at about $100 million. Hodogaya and Framochem are among just a handful of firms around the world that make specialty derivatives of phosgene, a highly toxic substance that was used as a chemical weapon during World War I. Framochem was established in 1992 and in 2014 was acquired by the US phosgene derivative maker VanDeMark Chemical. The private equity firm SK Capital acquired control of VanDeMark in 2022, but earlier this year VanDeMark disclosed that it will shut down its facility in Lockport, New York, by May 25.

—Michael McCoy

Ineos sells its Italian chlor-alkali sites to Esseco

The Italian commodity chemical producer Esseco Industrial has agreed to purchase Ineos Inovyn’s chlor-alkali production sites at Rosignano and Tavazzano, Italy. Financial terms were not disclosed. The parties expect to complete the deal by year-end. The Rosignano site employs 160 and is Italy’s largest producer of caustic soda and chlorine; Tavazzano produces sodium hypochlorite and has 25 employees. Ineos will retain an R&D facility at Rosignano. Esseco already has chlor-alkali plants in Pieve Vergonte and Saline di Volterra, Italy. “Through targeted optimization projects, the production sites will be progressively integrated and specialized, improving overall efficiency to better serve both domestic and international customers,” Francesco Nulli, CEO of the Esseco Group, says in a press release. Inovyn is selling its Italian sites as some European chlor-alkali producers are struggling to maintain a profit. The deal, which follows a review of Inovyn’s asset base, will enable the company to focus on its other European polyvinyl chloride and chlor-alkali businesses, CEO Stephen Dossett says in a release.

—Alex Scott

Ingevity sells road-marking business to PPG

Continuing a portfolio streamlining process, the specialty chemical maker Ingevity has sold its road-marking business to the paint maker PPG Industries for about $65 million. Ingevity says it will keep its pavement technology business, which markets ingredients that help apply and preserve asphalt. Last year, Ingevity announced the closure of pine chemical plants in Arkansas and Louisiana and the sale of a pine chemical plant in South Carolina. It also said it may sell its advanced polymer business, a maker of caprolactone polymers. For its part, PPG says in a press release that the Ingevity road-marking business will enhance its Traffic Solutions operation. Both businesses make the predominantly yellow and white paints used to regulate traffic.

—Michael McCoy

Unibio and BioVerde to collaborate on a route to butadiene

Denmark’s Unibio and Houston-based BioVerde are collaborating on fermentation technology to convert methane into chemicals, with a particular focus on butadiene, a raw material for synthetic rubber. The partnership will attempt to combine Unibio’s vertical loop gas fermentation reactor with BioVerde’s Methylococcus capsulatus organism and chemical processing technology. Unibio has been using its reactor technology to make protein. In March, it formed a joint venture with the Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG) to build a plant in Al Jubail with capacity to make 50,000 metric tons of protein per year. SIIG invested $70 million in Unibio in 2023.

—Alex Tullo

AgroSpheres opens commercial plant

The agricultural technology start-up AgroSpheres has opened a commercial-scale facility in Virginia that will use fermentation to produce biofungicide and other crop chemicals. AgroSpheres, one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2024, developed a technology to encapsulate biomolecules and thus improve their performance. The company’s first product is an encapsulated thyme oil product that controls fungus on grapes, berries, almonds, and other specialty crops. The biofungicide, introduced last year, was approved for use in California in March. The 1,000 m² facility will initially make enough products to treat hundreds of thousands of hectares per year, and the company hopes to expand production further.

—Matt Blois

BASF, TSR collaborate on battery recycling in Europe

The chemical giant BASF is collaborating with the recycling firm TSR Group to recycle car batteries. BASF has a battery recycling plant in Schwarzheide, Germany, that can turn used batteries into black mass, a powder containing key metals for battery cathodes. TSR has a logistics network that can collect, discharge, and dismantle used batteries. In addition, the firm has expertise in recycling metals that aren’t used in cathodes, such as copper. The Schwarzheide facility started commercial-scale production in 2025. BASF says the plant, with an annual capacity of 15,000 metric tons of used batteries, is one of the largest black mass producers in Europe.

—Matt Blois

Quote of the week

MilliporeSigma launched biobased lab solvents

MilliporeSigma, the US and Canada life sciences business of Merck KGaA, has launched a line of biobased solvents for use in high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The three solvents—ethanol, methanol, and acetonitrile—are manufactured by undisclosed partners and purified by MilliporeSigma to be drop-in replacements for fossil-derived solvents, according to Jeffrey Whitford, vice president for sustainability and social business innovation in the life sciences business. The ethanol comes from beet sugar fermentation, the methanol from wood pulp, and the acetonitrile from cassava, a root that contains acetone cyanohydrin. The carbon impact of using biobased solvents in the lab is modest, Whitford acknowledges. “It’s really about making sure these materials are starting to enter the marketplace, because we are the starting point for so much of science and what eventually gets scaled up in other processes,” he says.

—Michael McCoy

Kailera Therapeutics pulls off largest-ever biotech IPO

Less than 2 years after launching with $400 million, the biotechnology start-up Kailera Therapeutics has gone public in an initial public offering (IPO). Kailera raised $625 million in the offering, breaking the record for largest biotech IPO. That title was previously held by Moderna, which raised $604 million in 2018. Kailera is developing four drug candidates for weight loss and metabolic conditions that the firm licensed from the Chinese firm Jiangsu Hengrui. The business strategy is an iteration of the “buy and build” model, in which experienced pharmaceutical executives—like Kailera CEO Ron Renaud—buy assets that originated elsewhere, develop them, then take the company public or sell it for a healthy return on investment. Kailera marks a “new wave of Chinese newcos” that differ from their predecessors “only by sourcing assets from Chinese biotech and biopharma instead of Western counterparts,” Leon Tang, founder of the consulting firm InScienceWeTrust BioAdvisory, writes in an email.

—Rowan Walrath

Bain launches Beeline with Bristol Myers Squibb compounds

The investment and consulting firm Bain Capital has debuted Beeline Medicines, a start-up that will advance five programs licensed from Bristol Myers Squibb. Beeline’s lead program is afimetoran, a small molecule designed to treat lupus by inhibiting toll-like receptors 7 and 8, whose activation causes inflammation. Afimetoran is in Phase 2 clinical trials. Beeline is also developing a fusion protein for atopic dermatitis and lupus, a small molecule that blocks tyrosine kinase 2 to treat plaque psoriasis, and two biologics targeting the interleukin-18 and interleukin-10 pathways for gastrointestinal and other inflammatory conditions. Beeline has raised $300 million in a series A financing led by Bain.

—Rowan Walrath

Lilly to buy the cancer cell therapy specialist Kelonia

Eli Lilly and Company will acquire the cancer cell therapy company Kelonia Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $7 billion and with $3.25 billion paid up front. Kelonia has been developing an in vivo version of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy in which a proprietary lentivirus vector is used to deliver genetic material directly to T cells in the body, priming them to fight off cancer cells. Kelonia’s therapy is already in Phase 1 trials for multiple myeloma. Lilly and Kelonia say that delivering their cell therapy product in vivo eliminates the lengthy process of ex vivo, patient-specific T-cell production and the requirement for predelivery chemotherapy. Earlier this year, Lilly acquired the CAR-T firm Orna Therapeutics for $2.4 billion.

—Max Barnhart

UCB buying Neurona Therapeutics

The Belgian pharma firm UCB will purchase Neurona Therapeutics for an up-front payment of $650 million and up to $500 million in potential milestones. The acquisition grants UCB access to Neurona’s lead asset, NRTX-1001, a therapeutic candidate to treat epilepsy. It works by replacing damaged inhibitory neurons with new ones generated from induced pluripotent stem cells. This may dampen excessive excitatory signaling, which can lead to seizures. NRTX-1001 is currently in early-stage clinical trials.

—Sarah Braner

What we’re reading

• As part of a chemical industry investment push, China now discovers more than 40% of new chemicals and reactions: Chemistry World
• The US government is taking aim at high fertilizer prices: Argus Media
• Texas edges out Massachusetts in venture capital fundraising: The Boston Globe