Deal for Elan not ‘possible’

ELAN’s share price dipped by just over 1% yesterday after Danish pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck ruled out any potential takeover approach for the Irish company.

The Danish company had in recent weeks and months been heavily and repeatedly linked with a potential bid for the Dublin and Athlone-based maker of the international multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri.

Elan has remained tight-lipped over speculation doing the rounds.

However, Lundbeck’s chief financial officer Anders Gotzsche has been quoted as saying: “I don’t see that, at this point in time, it would be possible to borrow the money needed to buy a company the size of Elan.”

The two most recent high trading days for Elan shares – earlier this month, when it saw a 9% rise in one day, and at the end of March – were both on the back of speculation that Lundbeck was going to buy the company.

Yesterday, the company’s share price slipped by 1.22% to €4.87.