SUPERMARKETS
Whole Foods warned about violations at Everett food preparation facility
The Food and Drug Administration has warned Whole Foods Markets to resolve serious violations found at a regional food preparation facility in Everett after inspectors discovered condensation from ceiling pipes dripping on food, as well as evidence of the germ Listeria. Earlier this month, the federal agency sent a lengthy letter to Whole Foods citing an extensive list of food safety violations during multiple visits in February to the company’s kitchen in Everett, which makes ready-to-eat foods for 74 stores in Northeastern states. The agency said Whole Foods’ initial response to the violations was unacceptable because the company did not offer sufficient documentation about how it would correct the problems at the 70,000-square-foot facility and ensure compliance with health and safety rules. Whole Foods’ global vice president of operations, Ken Meyer, said in a statement that he was “honestly surprised” by the warning and that the company has taken “thorough and tangible steps” to address problems. FDA inspectors who visited the Everett plant, known as Whole Foods Market North Atlantic Kitchen, wrote that they saw condensation dripping onto surfaces where dishes such as pesto pasta and mushroom quesadillas were being prepared or stored, as well as uncovered barrels of egg salad. — MEGAN WOOLHOUSE
BIOTECH
Two companies plan layoffs after drug program setbacks
A pair of Massachusetts biotech companies said Tuesday they would eliminate a total of nearly 70 jobs after suffering reverses in their key drug programs. Shares of Infinity pharmaceuticals Inc. plunged 69 percent after the 15-year-old Cambridge company said results of a mid-stage clinical study of its duvelisib blood cancer drug fell short of expectations.Infinity said it eliminated 46 research jobs, or 21 percent of its workforce. Chiasma Inc. said it pared a third of its 70 employees. The cuts follow the company’s April announcement that the Food and Drug Administration had rejected its experimental drug Mycapssa to treat a pituitary gland growth disorder. The setbacks underscore the high-risk nature of drug development, a key sector of the Massachusetts economy, even at a time of broad scientific advances. Only about 11 percent of clinical trials succeeded from 2012 to 2014, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Chiasma, which recently moved its headquarters to Waltham from Newton, sustained a 63 percent drop in its stock after the FDA rejection in April. The company at the time said it didn’t plan to cut its workforce, which includes 45 people in the United States and 25 at a research site in Israel. — ROBERT WEISMAN
BIOTECH
Biogen to stop making drugs at its Cambridge plant
Biogen Inc. will stop producing drugs at its Cambridge plant by year-end, a move that could idle up to 285 workers as the company consolidates its worldwide manufacturing. The state’s largest biotech company is seeking to sublease its bioprocessing operation in a building at its headquarters and research campus in Kendall Square. If another tenant can’t be found, Biogen plans to shut the 66,000-square-foot plant — its oldest and smallest manufacturing site — that makes drugs to treat multiple sclerosis and hemophilia. The work will be moved to larger sites in North Carolina and Europe. Some manufacturing employees in Cambridge may be offered jobs at Biogen’s production site in Durham, N.C., while others could find work at another biotech firm that picks up the lease. But Biogen, which cut 400 jobs in Massachusetts as part of a restructuring last fall, will continue to reduce its local head count. The company now employs about 2,900 in Cambridge and Weston, and a total of about 7,000 worldwide. Biogen has suffered a series of setbacks over the past year. Earlier this month it disclosed that its first drug to repair nerve damage in MS patients failed to hit its primary goal in a clinical trial. Slower sales growth and disappointing results in another MS clinical study last year promped the company to cut about 880 jobs, including the 400 in its home state. — ROBERT WEISMAN
HOTELS
Head of convention center says Boston needs more rooms
The state’s convention center chief says he will not reconsider a plan to expand the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center until the South Boston waterfront gets more hotel rooms. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority on Monday released a report from a hotel management adviser, showing the immediacy of the problem. Boston ranks last, by far, among peer cities for the number of rooms within walking distance of the main convention center. And the pace for booking convention center space is declining from 2018 through 2021, primarily because of the difficulty in assembling blocks of hotel rooms and transportation costs involved with shuttling convention-goers from hotels, the report showed. “We have a beautiful convention venue that has a fatal flaw: It does not have enough hotel rooms,” said David Gibbons, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Gibbons said meeting planners are increasingly turning away from the BCEC because of an insufficient number of nearby rooms. And there’s a secondary problem: The authority is increasingly finding it can’t book the Hynes Convention Center, the authority’s sister facility in the Back Bay, because hotels near that facility are already booked for conventions at the 12-year-old BCEC. — JON CHESTO
BEER
Three restaurant companies want leniency for alleged kickbacks
Three prominent Boston restaurant companies, accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks from a beer distributor, asked for leniency at a state disciplinary hearing Tuesday and questioned the legality of the charges against them. Attorneys for the Glynn Hospitality Group Inc., the Wilcox Hospitality Group Inc., and an affiliate of the Cronin Group LLC appeared before the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission to face charges stemming from the agency’s crackdown on so-called “pay-to-play” in the state’s beer industry. Investigators say the companies were among five restaurant operators that received about $120,000 from an Everett beer distributor, Craft Brewers Guild, to put the distributor’s beers on tap at their Boston bars and freeze out brews sold by competing distributors. The bar owners acknowledged receiving the money from Craft Brewers Guild, but said the payments were offered unprompted by salesmen and managers for the distributor. Attorneys for each of the three companies said the ABCC’s ban on such payments was undermined by the repeal in 1970 of a state law banning inducements in the alcohol industry. Moreover, James Byrne, an attorney for the Wilcox Group, argued the ABCC hadn’t enforced pay-to-play rules in decades and should issue a warning to the retailers instead. Craft Brewers Guild, part of the multistate beer wholesaling empire controlled by the Sheehan Family Companies, paid a record $2.6 million penalty earlier this year to avoid serving a three-month license suspension, but is contesting the fine in state court. — DAN ADAMS
AVIATION
Massport looking for new firm to oversee concessions at Logan
For the first time in more than a decade, the Massachusetts Port Authority is looking to hire a new company to oversee the concessions at its four Logan Airport terminals — a decision that could remake the vast array of retailers and restaurants there for years to come. Many of the country’s biggest airport concessionaires and developers are jockeying for the business: About 160 stores, restaurants, and newsstands operate in the terminals now, together generating about $175 million in revenue a year. The people who run Logan have hinted they are looking for more of a regional theme among the concessions, meaning that the 100,000 or so people who trek through Logan every day could see more Boston brands, names like Legal Sea Foods and Stephanie’s. But change won’t happen overnight: The companies’ agreements with Massport begin to expire at the end of June 2017 and many individual tenants have leases that will extend well beyond that date. — JON CHESTO