Elan Reports Smaller 1Q Loss of $33.3M
Thursday May 4, 5:51 pm ET

Elan Posts Smaller 1st-Quarter Loss of $33.3M; Company Forecasts Possible Return to Profitability DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Elan Corp. PLC, the Irish biopharmaceutical company whose hopes are tied to a suspended multiple-sclerosis drug, reported a smaller first-quarter loss Thursday and forecast a return to profitability if U.S. sales of Tysabri resume.

Elan said it lost $33.3 million inl;uding stock compensation expenses in the January-March quarter versus a loss of $115.6 million in the same quarter a year ago. It said sales rose 31 percent to $134.3 million from $102.7 million a year earlier.

On the Irish Stock Exchange, Elan's shares initially rose but fell back in a broadly negative market, closing down 8 euro cents (10 cents) at 11.32 euros ($14.26). The company's U.S. shares fell 20 cents, or 1.4 percent, to finish at $14.48 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Analysts say the future of the Dublin-based company depends on the return of Tysabri, a drug withdrawn from sale in the United States early last year after being linked to a rare, often fatal brain disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce by June 28 whether Tysabri sales can resume.

Both company officials and market analysts said they expect Tysabri to get the green light.

"We remain committed to making Tysabri available for patients in the U.S. and Europe and are confident that, with the financial leverage we've created over the year, revenues from Tysabri will accelerate our return to profitability," said Elan's chief financial officer, Shane Cooke.

"Once Tysabri is back on the market, momentum will return to the stock," said Ian Hunter, an analyst for Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin.

In November 2004 the FDA approved Tysabri for sale to the approximately 350,000 people in the United States who suffer from MS, an incurable disease of the central nervous system. Elan and Biogen Idec Inc., its U.S. partner in developing Tysabri, withdrew the drug three months later when three people taking Tysabri in clinical trials contracted the brain disease PML; two died. Both companies subsequently said they found no additional PML cases among other Tysabri users.

The suspension of Tysabri hammered Elan's shares, which fell from above 20 euros to as little as 3 pounds before mounting a gradual recovery over the past year.

On March 9, an advisory panel to the FDA voted unanimously to recommend that the agency should permit Tysabri to be sold again in the U.S., subject to new restrictions. The panel cited the drug's strong ability to help MS sufferers block the recurrence of key effects, such as sudden partial paralysis.