Business news in brief

Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth said they would sell animal vaccines, drugs, and intellectual property to Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to clear the way for Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth. Wyeth has major operations in the Philadelphia area. Pfizer had said the Wyeth deal would give it the world's biggest animal-health business, with about $4 billion in annual revenue. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. - Bloomberg News

Advanta Corp., the Spring House small-

business credit-card lender that questioned its own survival and cut off almost one million accounts, said defaults fell in August for the second straight month. Write-offs were 22.19 percent last month, compared with 24.02 percent in July, it said yesterday in a federal filing. The annualized figure reflects the percentage of loans in the Advanta Business Card Master Trust deemed uncollectible. Loans at least 30 days delinquent, a gauge of future losses, rose to 11.57 percent from 9.98 percent. Advanta is writing off loans when they are 120 days overdue, instead of the standard 180 days. - Bloomberg News

Nectar Therapeutics said it licensed a pair of experimental pain treatments to AstraZeneca P.L.C. in a deal valued at about $1.12 billion. AstraZeneca will pay Nectar $125 million up front for the rights to two drugs: NKTR-118, an oral product intended to treat constipation caused by opioid pain drugs, and NKTR-119, which is intended to combine NKTR-118 with opioid pain drugs to create a painkiller that doesn't cause constipation. AstraZeneca, London, has U.S. headquarters near Wilmington. Astra will handle further development of the drugs. - AP

PhotoMedex Inc. has been threatened with delisting from the Nasdaq Global Market because its share price was below $1 for 30 consecutive days. The Montgomeryville company, which develops laser and fiber-

optic systems and techniques to treat skin conditions, said it was notified Sept. 15, two days before announcing that Nasdaq would allow it to raise as much as $4 million in a private sale of common stock without shareholder approval.
- Roslyn Rudolph

Internet service providers couldn't block or slow lawful Web traffic under rules proposed by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Web companies would have to disclose how they manage their networks to show they aren't helping favored providers deliver content sooner, Chairman Julius Genachowski said. "Net neutrality" prevents providers from favoring some Web sites by delivering their content faster than similar material from competing sources. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are among providers that have said new rules are unwarranted and may hurt the ability to manage congestion. - Bloomberg News

Dell Inc. plans to buy technology services company Perot Systems Corp. for about $3.9 billion. Dell said it would offer $30 per share in cash for Perot Systems, a 68 percent premium over its closing price Friday. Perot Systems' shares rose sharply to close up $11.65, or 65 percent, at $29.56. Dell shares fell 68 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $16.01. - AP

Bad news for Northeast utilities that suffered through a mild summer: A leading weather forecaster is predicting a mild winter, too. WSI Corp., a forecaster that serves the corporate market, predicts above-normal temperatures in the region from October through December. Energy Security Analysis Inc., which analyzes data for energy traders, says a warmer Northeast will offset cooler weather in other parts of the country, depressing demand for natural-gas prices. - Andrew Maykuth

Despite some progress, congressional investigators cast doubt on whether efforts by American International Group Inc. to restructure its operations and pay back the government would ever prove successful. Still, the company's shares jumped about 15 percent after the head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said the panel would examine a plan to reduce the AIG bailout package. In the biggest taxpayer-funded bailout of a single company, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have provided $182.3 billion to the insurance giant. The Government Accountability Office said that as of early September, AIG's outstanding balance of aid was $120.7 billion. AIG spokesman Mark Herr said: "AIG remains committed to reducing risk and repaying taxpayers." - AP

Interest rates on six-month Treasury bills hit a record low for the fourth consecutive week. The Treasury Department yesterday auctioned $29 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 0.190 percent, down from 0.210 percent last week. The government started issuing six-month bills on a weekly basis in December 1958. Another $29 billion in three-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.100 percent, down from 0.135 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.47, while a six-month bill sold for $9,990.39. - AP

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, was unchanged last week at 0.40 percent. - AP

The House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans. A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott (D., Wash.) and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent - including Pennsylvania and New Jersey - and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September. The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February. - AP