MedImmune

MedImmune, Inc. nasdaq: MEDI is a Maryland-based biotechnology company that produces Synagis, a drug for the prevention of respiratory infections in infants, which accounted for $1.06 billion of its $1.2 billion in revenue for 2005, and FluMist, a nasal spray flu vaccine introduced in 2004. Sales of FluMist have fallen short of analysts' expectations for the first two years the drug was sold. FluMist is sold in a frozen form, which is difficult for doctors to store. It is also approved only for healthy people ages 5 to 49, a significant limitation because it eliminates a significant market -- the millions of young children who find injections objectionable.

The company is conducting clinical trials for a new generation of flu vaccine, called CAIV-T. MedImmune reported a 16.6 million loss in 2005, and a $3.8 million loss the previous year for $1.14 billion in revenue. On April 23, 2007 it was announced MedImmune and AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement under which AstraZeneca intends to acquire MedImmune in an all cash transaction at $58 per share, or about $15.2 billion.

In June 2007, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began enrolling participants in a Phase 1 H5N1 study of an intranasal influenza vaccine candidate based on MedImmune's live, attenuated vaccine technology.