Business Roundup

HallStar has acquired Dow Chemical's Dioplex polymeric plasticizers and Rezilube polymer additives. The companies say the transaction will allow HallStar to serve customers in need of polymeric esters while Dow concentrates on core polyurethane systems and elastomers.

Arkema has sold China-based businesses in ceramic opacifiers and polyethylene terephthalate catalysts to the Singapore firm Hoe Seng. Arkema has been making these products at a plant in Guangzhou that employs about 105 people and generates $17 million in sales annually.

Bayer and the Technical University of Dortmund will build a technology center in Leverkusen, Germany. Funded in part with $6 million from the local government, the center will develop and test efficient production techniques intended to promote resource conservation.

Süd-Chemie and Linde have opened a pilot plant at Süd-Chemie's research center in Munich for the production of up to 2 tons of ethanol annually from straw. The process combines biocatalysis expertise from Süd-Chemie with chemical process technology from Linde's Linde-KCA-Dresden subsidiary.

Evotec, a German drug discovery firm, will cut its workforce by about 45 people by ending operations at Renovis, a South San Francisco company it acquired in 2007. Consolidating research in Europe will result in annual savings of about $13 million, Evotec says.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals is shedding 200 jobs, or 35% of its sales force, in an attempt to improve its diabetes alliance with Eli Lilly & Co. Sales of the partners' Byetta have faltered in recent months. Financier Carl Icahn is trying to gain control of Amylin's board of directors in order to sell the firm to Lilly.

Jubilant Biosys will provide preclinical drug candidates to AstraZeneca under a collaboration that will last at least five years and initially focus on neuroscience. Jubilant, an Indian firm, will earn milestone payments for promising drug candidates as well as royalties on products that are launched.