Business Roundup

Pharmacopeia and Cephalon have aligned to discover and develop small-molecule drugs. Pharmacopeia, which will receive an up-front fee of $15 million, will apply its medicinal chemistry and biology expertise to help advance Cephalon compounds into the clinic.

Roche and Entelos have formed a two-year collaboration in metabolic disease research. Roche will provide R&D funding and milestone payments to Entelos, which will use its Metabolism PhysioLab "virtual patient" platform to predict the effects of drugs on metabolic pathways and biomarkers.

Lubrizol has completed the sale of its active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediate compounds business to Auctus Management, a private equity firm based in Munich. The deal involves facilities in Raubling, Germany, and Chennai, India.

Almac, a pharmaceutical services company, is rebranding its five business divisions under one name. The new divisions are Almac Sciences (the former CSS), Almac Clinical Services, Almac Clinical Technologies, Almac Pharma Services, and Almac Diagnostics.

Cognis plans a multi-million-dollar expansion of its oleochemical esterification plant in Cincinnati to optimize production of lubricant base stocks. The project, to be completed in early 2007, includes removal of older equipment to allow for future expansion.

Dow Chemical will expand capacity for dry calcium chloride at its Ludington, Mich., plant by more than 30%. The company says new pellet calcium chloride supplies will be available by third-quarter 2006 and additional flake supplies by second-quarter 2007.

Mitsubishi Rayon and Honam Petrochemical have agreed to set up a 50-50 joint venture that will build a 90,000-metric-ton-per-year methyl methacrylate plant in South Korea.