British drug maker might not build in Lexington

The Region
Drug maker Shire PLC said its $210 million expansion plan for two new buildings on Patriot Way in Lexington is on hold. Spokesman Matthew Cabrey said the British company might build its manufacturing and technical facilities in Maryland, North Carolina, or Rhode Island unless Massachusetts offers enough incentives for it to go ahead with the project. He said Governor Deval Patrick's $1 billion life sciences initiative would make a compelling incentive package more likely, but the company's decision does not hinge on the bill. Shire also said it will proceed with plans to occupy two existing buildings in Lexington near the proposed site. (Todd Wallack)

Philadelphia flights from Logan to end on Nov. 7

AirTran Airways confirmed it is dropping service on the Boston-Philadelphia route Nov. 7, two days after Delta Air Lines Inc. begins offering four daily flights to Philadelphia from Logan International Airport. The move will leave Delta as the only nonstop alternative to dominant US Airways, which offers up to 17 daily flights from Logan to its Philadelphia hub. (Peter J. Howe)

The state's two largest bar associations have new presidents. Anthony M. Doniger, a partner at Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen in Boston, assumes leadership of the Boston Bar Association, and David W. White Jr., a partner at Breakstone, White & Gluck in Boston, takes over at the Massachusetts Bar Association. Doniger, a Harvard Law School graduate, is a trial lawyer who chairs his firm's business litigation department. White, a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, is a civil litigator specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice, and professional liability. Doniger succeeds R. Jack Cinquegrana and White succeeds Mark D. Mason, whose one-year terms ended yesterday. (Sacha Pfeiffer)

Google Inc. is expanding its footprint in Cambridge. As first reported by the Boston Business Journal and confirmed by the Globe, Google has agreed to lease at least 60,000 square feet in the Cambridge Center office complex. The Journal reported Google will lease 75,000 square feet in the 3 and 5 Cambridge Center buildings, with an option to expand to 200,000 square feet. Neither Google nor Boston Properties Inc., which owns the complex, would comment. Google has made no secret of its plans to expand its presence in the Boston area, in a bid to tap the region's deep pool of computer engineering talent. In February, Google installed a staff of 50 workers at an office at One Broadway in Cambridge and has continued to hire more workers. (Hiawatha Bray)

Ameriquest Mortgage Co., the largest US subprime lender as recently as 2005, is closing, the latest home loan provider to shut down amid the nation's housing market slump. Citigroup Inc., the largest US bank, said it agreed to buy the wholesale mortgage lending and payment collection assets of Ameriquest's parent, ACC Capital Holdings, for an undisclosed price. The acquisition includes the right to collect payments on, or service, $45 billion of loans. About 2,000 employees work for that operation. A small amount of other loans and assets were also included. (Reuters)

The World Trade Organization has opened a formal investigation into US and Mexican allegations that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of industries, officials said. The two countries accuse Beijing of using WTO-prohibited tax breaks to encourage Chinese companies to boost exports, while imposing tax and tariff penalties to limit purchases of foreign products in China. "We are concerned about a series of measures maintained by China that appear to constitute subsidies prohibited under WTO rules," US trade lawyer Juan Millan told the WTO's dispute body. Beijing, meanwhile, blocked a separate probe of its rules for protecting intellectual property rights. But the move will probably only delay the creation of a panel until the next meeting of the WTO's dispute body in September, when Washington can bring up the issue again. Under WTO rules, a second request for an investigative panel is automatically granted. (AP)