Elan, Biogen shares rise on drug trials

ELAN and Biogen share prices rose immediately yesterday on the back of positive results in trials of their Antegren drug in patients with multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

In Dublin, Elan rose more than 24% by early afternoon to 2.55 and it was trading at $2.87 on the NYSE, up around 16.6%. On the Nasdaq, Biogen was up around 2.25% to $40.96 in early trading.

Elan's positive bounce was also partly due to its announcement earlier this week that it had completed the sale of its subsidiary Athena Diagnostics to Behrman Capital for