Greater Worcester

Corporate Environmental Advisors, Inc. (CEA) of West Boylston was awarded a five-year contract by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide federal clients with environmental consulting, remediation and reclamation services.

AbbVie Inc. said its oral treatment for hepatitis C showed about 96 percent of patients had no detectable levels of the virus after 12 weeks.

Michael O'Brien will step down Jan. 5 after a decade as Worcester's top appointed official to take a position as a real estate management executive.

A couple who claimed that mismanagement by doctors at UMass Memorial Center led to cerebral palsy in their daughter earned $4.25 million in a settlement last week.

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce has hired Christina M. Andreoli as vice president, a newly-created position the chamber said will free up chamber President Timothy Murray to focus fully on strategy.

Increased freight activity led to 11-percent revenue growth for Providence & Worcester Railroad in the third quarter, and net income of $593,000 after a third-quarter 2012 loss of $381,000.

RXi Pharmaceuticals of Westborough, which is pursuing approval of a drug aimed at minimizing post-surgical scarring, saw a 61-percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the third quarter, although it posted another loss, the biotech startup reported today.

Two buildings containing 44 apartments in downtown Worcester have been sold for $2.4 million, according to a broker involved in the deal.

Less than two months until it closes, the 83-year-old Higgins Armory Museum has begun the process to sell its historic Worcester building and surrounding property.

Biopharmaceutical research companies have conducted nearly 500 clinical trials of new medicines in Worcester over the past 14 years, according to a report released today by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).