Irish pharmaceuticals group Elan said yesterday it was confident of achieving revenues of $2 billion (#2.35 billion) in 2001, helped by the introduction of a number of new products.

Speaking at an ABN Amro Alfred Berg life sciences conference, Elan executive vice-president for corporate and business development Mr Seamus Mulligan said successfully meeting this goal would help the company achieve its long-term target of revenues of $5 billion by 2005. The company recorded revenues of $1.48 billion in 2000.