3 biotech companies to move to or expand in Hub

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said several biotech companies are moving to or expanding their operations in Boston, helping the city toward its goal of adding thousands of biotech jobs. Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Boston drug development company, plans to move from the Leather District to the South Boston Waterfront, and add 50 workers over the next few years. Cogito Health Inc., a health software company, and its affiliate Dimagi Inc., are moving from Cambridge to an unspecified location in Boston. They plan to hire 10 workers. In addition, Menino also noted the recent decision by Soadco/Klockner to open its US headquarters in Boston, adding about a dozen jobs. Soadco is also scouting locations in the Boston area for a manufacturing plant that could potentially add another 140 jobs, city officials said. (Todd Wallack)

Toyota Motor Corp. will build its Prius gas-electric car in the United States, responding to a weak dollar and record fuel prices by producing the hybrid in its biggest market. The United States accounts for 60 percent of Prius demand globally. The Prius will be assembled in late 2010 at a plant under construction in Blue Springs, Miss., Toyota said. The Highlander SUV scheduled to be made there will be shifted to Indiana, allowing Toyota to merge the production of trucks that burn the most fuel into one factory, in Texas, instead of two. Toyota is betting that gasoline prices will remain at historic highs, sustaining demand for the Prius. The company is also responding to currency shifts that make exports to the United States more expensive. (Bloomberg)

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged up this week, while rates on other home loans were a mixed bag. Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.37 percent this week, up from 6.35 percent last week. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, dipped to 5.91 percent this week, compared with 5.92 percent last week. Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 5.82 percent, up from 5.78 percent last week. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages held steady at 5.17 percent, unchanged from the previous week. (AP)

Epilepsy medicines don't need to carry the strictest US warnings about the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, a Food and Drug Administration panel recommended. Outside advisers to the agency voted 14-4 that so-called black box warnings aren't needed on the medicines, which are also used to treat psychiatric disorders and pain. The FDA usually follows the advice of its panels, though it isn't required to do so. Sales of the drugs topped $10.2 billion in the United States last year, and almost 102 million prescriptions were dispensed, according to research firm IMS Health Inc. The top sellers were GlaxoSmithKline PLC's Lamictal and Johnson & Johnson's Topamax, each with 21 percent of the market. (Bloomberg)

Former Citigroup Inc. chief executive and chairman Charles Prince has been elected to the board of Xerox Corp., the office equipment maker said. Prince became one of the highest-profile casualties of the debt crisis last year, when he departed Citigroup in November. Many shareholders criticized Prince for much of his tenure as chief executive, which began in 2003, as Citigroup's stock lagged its peers while Prince executed what was called an umbrella model of corporate organization, with several separate lines of business. Xerox spokesman Bill McKee said company chief executive Anne Mulcahy is "very familiar with his background and his experience . . ." (AP)

The Bank of England kept official interest rates unchanged at 5 percent, confirming expectations that policy makers are currently more concerned about surging inflation than the slowing domestic economy. Economists have suggested that the central bank is in an almost impossible position as it attempts to balance data suggesting that Britain is at risk of a recession alongside rising prices that have pushed inflation far above its 2 percent target rate. (AP)