LONDON (Reuters) - A finance director and two lawyers appeared in court yesterday charged with eight counts of insider dealing during the £305 million ($489.3 million) takeover of a biotech firm by Swiss drugmaker Novartis in 2006.

The case is one of several resulting from a crackdown on market abuse by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has brought three successful criminal cases to date.

Andrew King, Michael McFall and Andrew Rimmington, who all wore smart, dark-coloured suits, sat silently and impassively in the dock during the hour-long jury selection process at London's Southwark Crown Court.

The opening arguments of the trial, which is expected to last between four and six weeks, will begin today.

King, 62, is charged with disclosing inside information about the proposed takeover of NeuTec Pharma, which he was party to as the firm's finance director, to 43-year-old lawyer McFall.

McFall is alleged to have then passed this information on to Rimmington, 40, before the pair, both partners in the London offices of American law firms, bought shares in the biotech company.

The FSA allege that, on the basis of the inside information, McFall and Rimmington bought a total of almost 14,000 shares in NeuTec, which specialises in developing medicines against hard-to-treat hospital-acquired infections, or "superbugs.

Although the FSA's most recent figures show unusual share price movements in around 29 percent of takeover announcements, insider dealing cases remain notoriously lengthy, painstaking and tough to nail.

The three men, who were charged in June last year and released on unconditional bail pending the trial, face up to seven years in jail if found guilty.