FTC drops part of Elan investigation

Elan has said that US regulators have dropped part of an investigation into whether it tried to block unfairly a generic rival of Skelaxin, its muscle-relaxant medicine.

Elan has received a letter saying that the Federal Trade Commission is not to charge Elan for this.

Elan had planned to sell the US rights to Skelaxinm together with rights to its Sonata sleeping pill to King but the sale did not go ahead because of the investigation.

Elan had been planning to use the $850m (€741m) it got on the deal to fund research and to help pay its debts.