Greater Worcester

Tufts Health Plan of Watertown, which insures 118,000 in Central Massachusetts, announced it has opened an office in downtown Worcester. Located at 1 Mercantile St., the office will serve as a satellite office for Tufts' employer-sponsored and Medicare plans, the company said.

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.