Md. sales, use tax receipts up 12%
State sales and use tax revenues totaled $160.6 million in November, a 12 percent increase over the same month last year, Maryland Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein said yesterday.
Sales of computers and related products and services led the increase, Mr. Goldstein said, bringing in more than $3.1 million in tax revenues last month, a 43 percent increase.
Sporting goods and toy stores generated more than $2.7 million in tax receipts last month, up 6.3 percent, while other holiday gift-related categories such as card sales also showed improvement.
AT&T; buys on-line service
AT&T; Corp. broadened its role in the computer on-line services business yesterday by purchasing Interchange Network Co. from Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.
The companies did not disclose the value of the deal. But analysts estimated AT&T; paid between $50 million and $100 million.
The Interchange on-line service is to begin next spring with electronic versions of the Washington Post and Minneapolis Star-Tribune among its initial products.
USAir, pilots suspend bargaining
During the holidays, USAir Group Inc. and its 5,200-member pilots union will suspend their negotiations on cutting labor costs. The agreement between the two sides came at the request of former Virginia Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, who has been acting as a facilitator in the talks.
The talks will resume the first week in January, Mr. Baliles said. USAir is seeking $2.5 billion in employee concessions over the next five years.
MedImmune drug in Phase 1 trial
MedImmune Inc. announced yesterday that it has begun a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate its humanized monoclonal antibody, MEDI-493. The Gaithersburg company is developing MEDI-493 as a potential second-generation product for RSV disease; a first-generation product, RespiGam, is in Phase III clinical trials.
RSV is the leading cause of viral pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants.
Drugmaker buys care provider
In an unusual foray by a drug manufacturer into providing health-care services directly to patients, the Zeneca Group PLC, a leading maker of cancer drugs, said yesterday that it had agreed to buy 50 percent of Salick Health Care, which operates cancer care centers.
The deal valued Los Angeles-based Salick at $440 million, according to Zeneca, which is based in London.
Although several big drug companies recently acquired companies that sell drugs by mail and through managed care health plans, industry experts said they could not recall another drug company that had bought a health care provider.
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