AstraZeneca's MedImmune buy gets U.S. antitrust nod

U.S. antitrust authorities on Wednesday approved AstraZeneca Plc's plan to buy biotechnology company MedImmune Inc. for more than $15 billion.

Officials completed their investigation into the deal without taking action, the Federal Trade Commission said in a notice.

Last month, AstraZeneca agreed to buy MedImmune in its biggest transaction since the creation of the Anglo-Swedish drugs group in 1999. The all-cash deal aims to boost AstraZeneca's depleted drug portfolio by moving deeper into biotech medicine and taking a first step into vaccines.

MedImmune is one of the largest independent U.S. biotech companies and is best known for the nasal spray flu vaccine FluMist. The Maryland-based company also has two other marketed products, Synagis for infectious respiratory disease and Ethyol for reducing chemotherapy side effects.

(Published by Yahoo, May 30, 2007)