MedImmune to buy Aviron for $1.5 billion in stock

NEW YORK >> MedImmune Inc. today agreed to buy vaccine maker Aviron in a $1.5 billion stock swap aimed at adding FluMist, Aviron's promising treatment for influenza, to its own line of infectious disease products.

The deal is one of the largest ever between two biotechnology companies and signals the growing strength and confidence many biotechs are gaining at the expense of pharmaceuticals companies.

"I think you're going to see more of these biotech-to-biotech kind of mergers and acquisitions," said Bill Tanner, an analyst at S.G. Cowen Securities. "They're at the stage where they can put some real horsepower behind their commercial operations."

Gaithersburg, Md.-based MedImmune will exchange 1.075 of its shares for each Aviron share. Based on MedImmune's closing stock price of $44.10 on Friday, the offer values Aviron at $47.41 per share, or about $1.5 billion.

MedImmune's main product is Synagis, the first artificial antibody successfully developed to combat infectious diseases. The drug helps prevent respiratory tract diseases in children.

Ford's 1st-quarter output to be cut in North America

DEARBORN, Mich. >> Ford Motor Co. plans to reduce first-quarter production in North America by 9.3 percent from the year-earlier level to 980,000 vehicles, as automakers end no-interest loan offers that have spurred demand.

The second-largest automaker maintained its output forecast of 965,000 cars and trucks in the current quarter, which is a decrease of 9.4 percent from the year-earlier period, Ford said in a statement. Ford produced 1.08 million vehicles in this year's first quarter.

"To me this shows good responsibility on Ford's part because they clearly are aiming at a realistic market share," said Wendy Beale Needham, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Ford and rivals used no-interest loans and other incentives to boost sales because of the U.S. recession and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The discount financing is set to end next month.

Political, economic clout tops AFL-CIO agenda

LAS VEGAS >> With nearly 900,000 jobs wiped out by recession, American labor leaders will gather today to press for aid to idled workers as they search for ways to boost trade union membership and beef up their political clout.

The nearly 1,000 delegates from the 66 unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO also are expected to re-elect John Sweeney president of the labor federation, six years after his insurgent campaign promised to renew a moribund movement.

AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell said there will be no major strategy shifts when Sweeney opens the federation's convention at this heavily unionized gambling mecca. "There are some new twists, but the basic direction is the same," she said. "It's about raising the bar."

Despite its higher public and political profile and the millions spent on politics, mostly to the benefit of Democrats, the labor movement under Sweeney has failed three times to oust Republicans from control of the House of Representatives or to prevent the election of George W. Bush as president last year.

But labor has become a much more potent political force since 1995, despite being hugely outspent by business. A poll showed that union households accounted for a record 26 percent of voters in the 2000 elections, with about two-thirds of them voting Democratic.