Royalty given deadline to submit firm offer for Elan

Royalty Pharma, the US investment management firm interested in buying Irish biotechnology company Elan, has been set a deadline of May 10 by the Irish Takeover Panel to either table a firm offer for the company or walk away from the process for at least 12 months.

The New York firm made an indicative proposal to buy Elan, for $6.6bn (€5.1bn), or $11 per share, in February, which was described by Elan as being “heavily conditional” and “highly opportunistic”, given that Elan was in the midst of disposing of its main revenue-earner, the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri, and announcing its intention to return most of the funds to its shareholders.

Royalty is hoping to add hundreds of millions of dollars of royalty rights for Tysabri.