Yawkey cancer center construction underway

US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Representative Michael Capuano, Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and other state and local officials joined executives and medical staff of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at the formal start of construction of the $250 million, 275,000-square-foot Yawkey Center for Cancer Care in the Longwood Medical Area. Funded with $30 million from the Yawkey Foundation, the 13-floor center, designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP of Portland, Ore., and Miller Dyer Spears of Boston, will open with 100 exam rooms and seven underground floors of parking in 2011, at 450 Brookline Ave. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Abbott Laboratories Inc. has sued a French AIDS group for staging what the pharmaceutical and medical products maker says was a cyber attack against its website in April. A judge has scheduled an Oct. 3 hearing in the lawsuit against Act Up-Paris filed in a Paris criminal court on May 23, the Chicago-based company said. Abbott spokeswoman Jennifer Smoter said the alleged attack disrupted the website for hours April 26 on the eve of its annual meeting. Activists have been fighting Abbott over what they contend are excessive prices for its AIDS drugs. The company has been embroiled in recent months in a standoff over access to its drug Kaletra in Thailand. (AP)

Microsoft Corp. and a Chinese TV set maker said they will jointly develop entertainment products linking television and the Internet, joining a race to profit from the Web's growing status as a channel to distribute movies and other programs. As a part of the deal, Microsoft will become a strategic investor in Changhong, buying just under 1 percent of its shares for about $12 million, Changhong said. The types of equipment, software, and other products that might be developed, in which countries they might be sold, and other details are still under discussion, the companies said. (AP)

Oracle Corp. kept its spot as the biggest maker of database software, outselling both International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp. in 2006, researcher Gartner Inc. said. Oracle, the world's third-largest software company, held 47.1 percent of the $15.2 billion worldwide database market, compared with 21.2 percent for IBM and 17.4 percent for Microsoft. Gartner includes maintenance and upgrade fees in its tally to cover companies that provide open-source software for free and sell maintenance service. (Bloomberg)

Chrysler may get the same healthcare concessions from the United Auto Workers that its Detroit-based competitors received two years ago. Union president Ron Gettelfinger said the UAW must find a way to give Chrysler a similar deal to what it gave Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. in 2005. Chrysler's parent, Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG, said last month it would sell a controlling stake of its ailing US operations to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. Analysts have said Cerberus likely will demand deeper concessions from the union than Daimler would have. (AP)

Gregory Reyes, the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., either masterminded a stock options backdating scheme designed to defraud investors or fell victim to murky accounting laws and heightened public scrutiny to corporate accounting errors, prosecutors and defense lawyers said. Reyes is charged with 10 felony counts of securities fraud and other offenses and is on trial in San Francisco. Reyes's case is the first to go to trial alleging criminal offenses connected to suspect timing of stock option awards.

Lawyers who helped a heart attack victim win a $13.5 million jury verdict in a Vioxx liability case should be paid about $4 million in legal fees by Merck & Co., a New Jersey judge has ruled. Merck, which made the now-withdrawn painkiller, is appealing the verdict as well as the fees, said its lawyer, Ted Mayer. The company is battling nearly 25,000 lawsuits from people who said they were hurt by the drug. The decision on fees was issued Friday by state Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee, who presided over last year's trial on the claims of John McDarby and Thomas Cona. (AP)