Food bank breaks ground on South Bay Avenue

The Greater Boston Food Bank broke ground on a 110,000-square-foot distribution center on South Bay Avenue in the Newmarket area of Boston that officials said would allow it to double its annual distribution, to 48 million pounds. Moving from a facility about half that size, the nonprofit will serve more than 600 hunger-relief agencies in Eastern Massachusetts. The building, paid for with an ongoing $30 million capital campaign "Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope" and built on a former incinerator site across the street from its current location, will have rooftop parking to minimize traffic effects. Designed by Chan Krieger Sieniewicz of Cambridge, it is to open in the winter of 2008-09. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

The Patrick administration said it was allocating $250,000 for housing assistance grants to workers on Cape Cod. The money, which the state estimates will help 50 to 75 families, will be combined with grants given to employees by their companies when looking for housing. Renters will be eligible for up to $5,000 for first and last month's rent and security deposits, while home buyers will be eligible for up to $10,000 for down payments and closing or other costs. Workers who earn up to 110 percent of the Cape's median income are eligible. The median price of a single-family home in is $422,000 , while the median condo price is $315,000 , according to Warren Group. (Keith Reed)

International Business Machines Corp. will buy closely held Watchfire Corp. to gain security and compliance testing software. Waltham-based Watchfire used to be IBM's business partner, according to both companies. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed. Watchfire, founded in 1996, whose software helps companies make their websites more secure, will become part of IBM's Rational software brand. (Bloomberg)

CNN's coverage of two presidential debates this week, one of which elicited strong condemnations of the violence in Sudan, was cosponsored by Fidelity Investments, a Boston-based mutual fund firm that has invested in companies that do business in the African country. Fidelity has been a target of human rights groups because it has invested in PetroChina, a Chinese company that has significant ties to Sudan's government-owned oil industry. "Fidelity does not tell its fund managers how or when to buy or sell any given stock," spokesman Vincent Loporchio said. "Each fund manager makes that decision based on their individual assessment of the stock's value." (AP)

Boston medical technology company NMT Medical Inc. said it won an appeal in a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Cardia Inc. of Burnsville, Minn. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington remanded the case back to a district court, which had initially ruled that NMT infringed on a Cardia patent. The latest ruling said the district court incorrectly interpreted one of the patent's claims and found no issue of fact concerning other claims, according to NMT. (AP)

Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, agreed to buy closely held Alantos Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, which is developing treatments for arthritis and diabetes, for $300 million. Alantos's lead drug candidate is ALS 2-0426, to treat type 2 diabetes, Amgen said. Alantos employs 45 people. (Bloomberg)

Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Caremark Corp. retained a three-year contract to provide retail pharmacy benefits to the health plan for 4.7 million federal employees and retirees, while losing the mail-order portion to Medco Health Solutions Inc. The agreement covers the prescriptions patients fill at pharmacies and will result in about $4 billion a year in revenue, the company said. The health plan, known as Federal Employee Program, is the largest single US prescription contract. Caremark lost the contract to administer mail-order prescriptions, which it had held since 1993, to rival Medco, the largest US manager of drug benefits for employee health plans. (Bloomberg)