BASF And Symyx Launch Two-Year Polymer Research Collaboration

BASF Aktiengesellschaft (Ludwigshafen, Germany) and Symyx Technologies Inc. (Santa Clara, CA; 415-388-3216) have initiated a strategic combinatorial materials science collaboration to identify specialty polymers for industry. Under the terms of the two-year partnership, Symyx will receive $4 million in research payments. Symyx will also receive payments from products resulting from the collaboration.

Collaboration Details
About The Companies

Collaboration Details (Back to Top)
The contract is initially limited to two years, but may be extended. Through it, BASF and Symyx will use combinatorial chemistry to create specialty polymer substances that have low solubilities. To speed development, modern pharmaceutical research methods will be applied to materials development. These include rapid, miniature, and parallel compound synthesis as well as fast, automated screening for the desired properties.

"Our collaboration with Symyx complements our focus on high-value products and processes. We expect that the use of combinatorial methodologies will accelerate the discovery of new specialty polymers," says professor Hans-Uwe Shenk, president of BASF's Polymer Research Laboratory. "The collaboration will provide a basis for understanding the applicability of combinatorial methodologies across polymer science."

About The Companies (Back to Top)
With sales in excess of $32 billion, BASF is one of the leading companies in the chemical industry. The company's products include natural gas, oil, and basic chemical products, high value-added chemicals, crop protection products, and pharmaceuticals. BASF is noted for its chemical expertise and highly developed integrated systems, known as Verbund. BASF is an international organization with operations in 39 countries and more than 100,000 employees.

Founded by Alejandrso Zaffaroni and Peter Schultz, Symyx develops combinatorial materials science solutions for improving materials used in the electronics and chemical industries. Zaffaroni, founder of ALZA Corp., DNAX Research Institute, Affymax N.V., and Affymetrix, serves on the Symyx board of directors. Schultz is head of the Novartis Institute for Genomics Research and a professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute.

Symyx has over 130 employees and has raised more than $50 million from private and venture sources including Aventis Research and Technology, Bayer Innovation, Chemical and Materials Enterprise Assoc., Institutional Venture Partners, and Venrock Assoc.

For more information, call Symyx at 415-388-3216, or BASF at (+) 49-621-609-9914.