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Tue. Feb. 28, 2012 Alere agrees to buy eScreen Alere Inc., a Waltham-based company that provides health management services, said today that it has agreed to buy eScreen Inc., a technology firm that specializes in toxicology screening and employee health products and services. The purchase price is $270 million and potential additional payments of up to $70 million, Alere said. Kansas-based eScreen had 2011 revenues of about $120 million. Among the services it offers are urine drug screens.	Advertisement
One United Bank takes steps to foreclose on Roxbury church More than a year into a legal battle with a famous black Boston church, OneUnited Bank is taking steps to foreclose on the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, its customer of several years. OneUnited last week ran a notice in a Boston newspaper announcing that it plans to auction off the historic Roxbury church. That was how the church learned of the bank’s intentions, said the Rev. Gregory G. Groover Sr.
Sanofi leader to address BC’s Chief Executives’ Club Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive of French drug maker Sanofi SA, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Boston College’s Chief Executives’ Club of Boston luncheon March 6. Last year, Sanofi acquired Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp., one of the largest biotechnology companies in Massachusetts, for $20.1 billion. Besides an update on the Genzyme purchase, Viehbacher is scheduled to discuss current and future innovations in the world-wide pharmaceutical and health care industry.
Massachusetts economy expected to grow modestly, but risks loom, economists say The Massachusetts economy should grow modestly this year and slowly bring down the unemployment -- provided energy prices and the European debt crisis don’t spin out of control, a group of leading local economists said. The economists noted a number improving indicators that suggest the economic recovery will remain on track. Unemployment is down, production is up, and national economy is on the mend. But events beyond the state’s borders could derail the state’s recovery.
Galvin fines State Street unit $5m Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin said he has fined a unit of State Street Corp. $5 million for its role in a mortgage-backed debt obligation. State Street is a Boston-based financial services company. According to Galvin’s office, State Street Global Advisors failed to disclose a hedge-fund’s involvement in a $1.56 billion collateralized debt obligation known as Carina CDO Ltd. State Street acted as the investment manager of Carina.
Biogen Idec submits FDA application for promising MS drug Biogen Idec Inc., a Weston-based biotechnology company known for its multiple sclerosis drugs, said it has submitted a New Drug Application to federal regulators to get approval to market a potential new MS treatment known as BG-12. In December, Biogen Idec shares hit their high for 2011 when the company released promising results from a clinical trial of BG-12. BG-12 would be taken twice a day in pill form, and it is designed to treat the most common form of MS.
January sales rise for single-family homes in Massachusetts, but prices slip Massachusetts sales for single-family homes increased just over 3 percent to 2,425 last month, the highest January total since 2007, the Warren Group reported this morning. But median prices in January dropped 3.7 percent to $260,000 on a year-to-year comparison basis. January was the fifth consecutive month that median home prices have been below $300,000, the firm added. In the Massachusetts condo market, the volume of sales fell in January, dropping 4.3 percent to 903.
Samsonite expects European travel market to ‘go back slightly’ Samsonite International SA, the world’s largest maker of branded luggage, expects the European travel market to retreat in the first six months of the year and then begin to recover. “Maybe in the first half it will go back slightly but I think in the second half of this year and next year, things will get better,” chairman Tim Parker said in an interview in London yesterday. “I’m not pessimistic about Europe and I think we’re probably over the worst in terms of the credit crunch.”
New Panasonic TV’s use Nuance technology to respond to voice commands Nuance Communications Inc. of Burlington is getting into the television business. The company, a leader in speech recognition software, has signed a deal with Japan’s Panasonic Corp. to add its Dragon TV speech control technology to Panasonic’s Viera TV line. Panasonic has begun shipping sets with Dragon TV to customers in Europe; the company has not announced when similar sets will be available in the United States.
Bridal-gown event could evoke Filene’s Basement deja vu Even though the famous Filene’s Basement wedding dress sale “Running of the Brides” is no more, local brides can still get a chance to buy discounted wedding dresses this year. Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries and Lasell College are hosting “Brides on a Budget,” an event that will display high-end wedding dresses for sale starting at $100. The event was held for the first time in 2009, and will happen again this Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m., at the Goodwill headquarters at 1010 Harrison Ave. in Boston.
New York regulators probe State Street foreign exchange practices State Street Corp. said the attorney general in New York and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has made inquiries into its foreign exchange business. Boston-based State Street was the first bank sued for alleged overcharging in foreign exchange, in what has become a nationwide probe. In October 2009, the attorney general in California sued State Street on behalf of the state’s two largest public pension plans for $56 million in alleged overcharges from 2001 to 2009.
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