Business Roundup

Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharmaceutical company, has acquired GlaxoSmithKline's Mundogen generic drug business in Spain through its Spanish subsidiary, Laboratorios Ranbaxy.

Nova Chemicals has started a facility in Ningbo, China, for its Arcel polystyrene-polyethylene foam. The facility, a joint venture with Loyal Chemical, supplies moldable packaging material to protect items such as televisions and computers during shipping.

Millennium Cell has joined the University of South Carolina's Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells. Firms such as General Motors, Air Liquide, BASF, and LG Electronics are already supporting the center, which is also sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Solvay has sold its HexelOne high-pressure plastic pipe technology to Egeplast Werner Strumann, a German maker of polyethylene pipes. The technology makes pipes intended for water and gas distribution.

Lyondell Chemical and Citgo Petroleum have discontinued the auction of their joint-venture refinery in Houston. Lyondell says it may now buy out Citgo's stake.

J. M. Huber's sale of 12 precipitated calcium carbonate plants to Omya has been approved by the European Commission. Minerals Technologies, a competitor, is considering filing an appeal because it contends that the deal would give Omya too large a piece of the European paper filler business.

Akzo Nobel has agreed to sell its European oleochemicals business to Oleon, one of Europe's top three oleochemicals producers. The Akzo business is based in Emmerich, Germany, and had sales last year of about $62 million.