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Elan stockholders say no to advance

Monday, March 04 08:34:13

The vast majority of investors at Elan do not view a $6.6 billion approach by U.S. investment firm Royalty Pharma as worthy of discussion, the Irish drugmaker's chief executive said.

Elan announced today that it would give shareholders 20 percent of the royalty rights for multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri and Elan Chief Executive Kelly Martin told Reuters that this was not a response to Royalty's approach last week.

"We simply don't view the Royalty indication of interest as credible. The vast majority of our investor base simply don't view Royalty's indication as worthy of any discussion period," Martin told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"I wish Royalty well, they can do what they need to do but we're not in any discussions with them at all on any topic and we don't see any need to have those discussions." ( C) Reuters