ILLUMINATING DanChem managers anticipate increased flexibility for their Danville, Va., plant.

Hickson DanChem, a contract manufacturer based in Danville, Va., has been purchased from Arch Chemicals by the investment firm American Capital Strategies and DanChem management. American Capital is paying $29 million for a 75% stake in the company, which will be renamed DanChem Technologies.

Arch acquired DanChem as part of its acquisition of Hickson International in 2000; Arch is still trying to sell a Hickson organics plant in Castleford, England.

In a second deal in the Southeast, Irix Pharmaceuticals of Florence, S.C., has signed an agreement to purchase a commercial pharmaceutical chemicals plant in Greenville, S.C., from the Swiss firm Schweizerhall.

Irix is a five-year-old company founded by former Hoffmann-La Roche executives to provide pharmaceutical ingredients for discovery support through Phase II clinical trials. According to CEO J. Guy Steenrod, the Greenville plant will allow Irix to serve customers who have been asking for commercial manufacturing.

Irix currently employs 80 people, 27 of whom are Ph.Ds, Steenrod says, and the Schweizerhall purchase will add 62 more employees. R&D and process development activities will be consolidated at the Florence site, allowing the Greenville location to concentrate on large-scale manufacturing.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Krems Chemie Chemical Services, the custom manufacturing business of Finnish specialty chemicals maker Dynea, has been sold to Gerald Moser, its managing director, and Austrian investment fund MFAG.

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