A former hedge fund manager has been accused by a U.S. regulator of illegal insider trading in MedImmune Inc securities prior to the acquisition of the pharmaceutical company by Britain's AstraZeneca Plc.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Pennsylvania federal court, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stephen Goldfield, 46, of realizing $14 million of illegal profit.

The SEC said Goldfield traded in MedImmune stock and call options more than 30 times in the six weeks leading up to AstraZeneca's April 23, 2007, announcement that it would buy MedImmune for $58 per share.

It said Goldfield did the trading while receiving material, nonpublic information about the sale process from his friend and co-defendant James Self, 45, a director of business development at a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company.

Goldfield lives in Odessa, Florida, and Self lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the SEC said in the complaint.

It was not immediately clear whether the defendants have retained counsel. Calls to phone numbers listed for the men were not immediately returned.

The case is SEC v. Self et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, No. 10-04430.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by John Wallace)

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