Business Roundup

Enerkem, a Canadian waste-to-fuels company, has raised $51.5 million in venture capital from current and new investors, including Waste Management. Enerkem will use the money to build its second commercial plant. In December 2009, the company was awarded a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a plant in Mississippi.

Ferro plans to cease making plastics and dinnerware frit, a ceramic glazing material, at its Castanheira, Portugal, site. The shift will result in a $14 million charge against earnings and the loss of about 125 jobs. In both cases, Ferro plans to consolidate production in Almazora, Spain.

Innospec has taken a $22 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings, bringing to more than $40 million the money it has set aside to pay for violations of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program. Last year, the U.S. Justice Department accused an Innospec agent of offering kickbacks to Iraqi officials in exchange for OFFP contracts for a chemical used in refining leaded fuel.

SQM will suspend iodine and nitrate fertilizer operations at its El Toco and Pampa Blanca mines in Chile. The Chilean firm attributes the suspension to decreased global demand for the two chemicals.

Allylix, a start-up biotechnology flavor firm, has raised $6 million in a third round of venture capital funding. The company has developed technology to produce terpenes inexpensively from yeast fermentation. It plans to release its first product, the citrus flavor nootkatone, this year.

Pfizer’s Capsugel division has signed a license agreement giving it access to anticounterfeiting technology from NanoInk’s NanoGuardian unit. Called NanoEncryption, the technology will encrypt Capsugel drug capsules with coding that can be used by manufacturers to prevent counterfeiting and illegal diversion.

Viamet Pharmaceuticals will receive up to $200 million from the Novartis Option Fund to discover and develop metalloenzyme inhibitors against a specific target. Viamet uses a unique metal-binding approach to develop compounds that block metalloenzymes.

Aryx Therapeutics is exploring strategic options for its three lead programs after failing to license its antiarrythmic agent budiodarone. It uses retrometabolic drug design to create new molecules that retain the efficacy of established drugs but avoid adverse side effects. Aryx has cut its staff to fewer than 20 employees.