Business roundup

Shell has broken ground at its new Bukom petrochemical complex in Singapore. Featuring an 800,000-metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker and a 750,000-metric-ton ethylene glycol unit, the complex is scheduled to start up in 2009 or 2010.

Dow Corning has moved its Menlo Park, Calif., operations into a larger facility in Newark, Calif. Dow Corning says the move was prompted by increased demand from electronics manufacturers for the thermal interface materials previously made at the Menlo Park site.

Ineos is expanding capacity for poly ??-olefin lubricant additives by 50,000 metric tons per year over the next three years. The company makes PAOs in La Porte, Texas, and Feluy, Belgium, in plants acquired with its December 2005 purchase of BP's Innovene unit.

Cargill is commercializing a process for using glycerin to make various biomass-based products, the first of which will be propylene glycol. The firm says it has access to enough glycerin for "world-scale" production of propylene glycol.

Eli Lilly & Co. has completed a bioproducts pilot manufacturing plant, the first phase of a $560 million expansion of its biotech complex in Indianapolis. The company also opened a research support facility into which it will relocate 700 scientists, engineers, and support staff.

Viron Therapeutics has signed an agreement with Diosynth Biotechnology for process development, scale-up, and clinical manufacturing of Viron's lead product candidate, VT-111, which is currently in Phase II trials for treatment of inflammation associated with acute coronary syndrome.

Barr Laboratories' proposed acquisition of Pliva has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission, clearing the way for the deal to close. Barr's $2.5 billion cash offer ended a lengthy bidding war with Actavis for control of the Croatian generic drugs maker.