Dec. 16 Business Watch: Polymer maker Trinseo sinks deeper into trouble; Lilly to put $6 billion into another US plant

Money continues to flow to companies promising to combine artificial intelligence with robotics to accomplish lofty goals such as revolutionizing drug discovery or building AI scientists. The Business in brief section below includes short stories on a fundraising by Medra, which promises AI and machines that can autonomously run experiments from end to end, and a fundraising by ChemLex, which says it uses AI and robotics to design, synthesize, and analyze molecules around the clock.Earlier this month, Excelsior Sciences launched with $95 million to reshore US production of pharmaceutical and other molecules by using robotics and AI. Other firms with similar ambitions and flush bank accounts include Chemify, Lila Sciences, Onepot, Periodic Labs, and Project Prometheus.At C&EN’s recent networking event in New York City, panelists from the worlds of AI and chemistry pondered whether all these lab robots are going to start taking jobs away from chemists. Not surprisingly, opinions ranged widely, because at this stage of the AI revolution, no one really knows.Questions? Comments? Tips? Let us know. Email Michael McCoy, C&EN’s executive editor for business, at [email protected] stories from C&ENThe only US producer of magnesium has gone bankrupt. Two start-ups want to be the next producers of the critical metal.PsiThera launches with $47 million and a computational drug discovery platform that it says takes “a minute of training” to use.Patent expirations on Novo Nordisk GLP-1 drugs are animating the generic industry.In 2025, researchers pushed back against US government assaults on science.The US Food and Drug Administration proposes bemotrizinol,