Business Roundup

Ensyn has joined with the Brazilian wood pulp firm Fibria Celulose to produce cellulosic fuels and chemicals in Brazil. Fibria will invest $20 million in Ensyn, an Ottawa, Ontario-based firm that uses pyrolysis technology to produce fuel oils from wood and other nonfood biomass.

MWV Specialty Chemicals has agreed to buy out its partner, South Africa’s AECI, in the joint venture Resitec Indústria Química, which produces pine-based chemicals in Brazil. MWV, a division of MeadWestvaco, says the deal will accelerate its growth in emerging markets.

Oxis Energy and Lincad, both of the U.K., have jointly secured a contract from the U.K. Defence Science & Technology Laboratory to develop lithium-sulfur batteries for military applications. The Li-S batteries are set to be significantly lighter and safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries, Oxis says.

Dow Chemical has added a photovoltaic-material-testing lab to its corporate R&D center in Shanghai’s Pudong district. There, customers can test Dow’s encapsulation polymers under a variety of electrical, light, and weather conditions.

Wacker Biotech and XL-protein will offer contract manufacturing of PASylated proteins—proteins fused with polypeptides containing proline, alanine, and serine—to extend their half-lives as drugs. The German firms will combine XL’s PASylation technology with Wacker’s biologics production capabilities.

Agere Pharmaceuticals has added regulatory-compliant spray-drying capabilities at its facilities in Bend, Ore. The addition will allow the contract formulation-development firm to support customers through Phase II clinical trials.

Sigma-Aldrich’s SAFC division will supply formulation services for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs being developed by South Korea’s CrystalGenomics. CrystalGenomics will use SAFC’s Pharmorphix preformulation service to understand the drugs’ physical properties and their optimal crystallization processes.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Ensemble Therapeutics will collaborate on discovering macrocycle drug candidates that modulate targets specified by Boehringer. Ensemble will deploy its discovery technology and its Ensemblin collection of about 5 million macrocycles. It could receive up to $186 million.

Bayer HealthCare has entered a partnership with Medsintez, a Russian drugmaker, to jointly manufacture diagnostic-imaging products and pharmaceuticals for treating infection and neural disorders. The firms also intend to jointly develop new substances and medicines for the Russian market.