Business Roundup

CP Kelco will spend $8.0 million to expand its pectin facility in Lille Skensved, Denmark. The firm announced a $4.5 million expansion at the same plant in November 2009. Both projects are in response to growing demand for pectin, a derivative of citrus fruit peels used as a gelling and stabilizing agent.

Brenntag, a German chemical distributor, has acquired Denmark’s EAC Industrial Ingredients for about $200 million. EAC is a distributor that operates 27 locations in nine countries, mainly in South and Southeast Asia. It has nearly 800 employees.

Dow Chemical CEO Andrew N. Liveris and Dow Corning CEO Stephanie A. Burns are among the executives named to President Barack Obama’s President’s Export Council. Liveris says he applauds “the President’s vision for driving a resurgence in U.S. exports.”

SGL Group and Hitachi Chemical are joining to supply anodes for lithium-ion batteries to the European auto and industrial markets. The two firms already work together in the consumer lithium-ion battery market, where Hitachi calls itself the world leader in supplying anode materials.

Toray Industries has inaugurated a water treatment R&D center at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. The center now employs three researchers, but the Japanese firm says headcount could grow to 10 by the end of the year and to 50 by 2015. Equipped with a pilot plant, the center will mostly develop and test water treatment membranes.

Sanofi-Aventis and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation will jointly fund research at academic and nonprofit medical institutions related to new treatments for type 1 diabetes, with a particular focus on β-cell regeneration and immune therapies. Sanofi has the option to license any intellectual property generated in the program.

Arena Pharmaceuticals has picked Japan’s Eisai to market lorcaserin, an obesity treatment that Arena discovered and developed. Arena, based in San Diego, will get $50 million up front and more than 30% of the sales of lorcaserin if the drug is approved. Arena filed a New Drug Application with FDA last year.

Santarus will reduce its workforce by 37%, eliminating 120 jobs, in anticipation of the launch of a generic version of its immediate-release proton pump inhibitor, Zegerid. Cincinnati-based Prasco plans to introduce a generic drug authorized by Santarus.