Merrion Pharma’s Donnelly will not seek re-election

Merrion Pharmaceuticals non-executive director Michael Donnelly will not seek re-election at the company's AGM this week.

Mr Donnelly, who co-founded Merrion in 2003, will continue to be associated with the company in a consultancy capacity.

He will also keep his significant shareholding in the company through options and warrants. Donnelly co-founded Merrion following the acquisition of drug delivery technologies from Elan 11 years ago.

The pharma firm was then floated on the Irish Stock Exchange’s Enterprise Securities Market in 2007. In June 2012, he stepped back from the day-to-day running of the business, becoming executive chairman. He was succeeded in that role in January of this year by Michael McKenna.

Elsewhere, ECB president Mario Draghi will address the European Parliament's Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs today.

He will present the ECB’s perspective on economic and monetary developments before entering in a discussion with members, where he will discuss the strength of the euro and the development of the ECB balance sheet in comparison to the FED and Bank of England.

The committee will also hold an exchange of views with incoming European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Jyrki Katainen today.

Olli Rehn, who has been the EU's economics commissioner since February 2010, is stepping down to become a member of the European Parliament, to which he was elected in May.