Elan losses push Iseq over 6% lower

The collapse of Elan’s share price this morning has dominated the Dublin market and dragged the index down over 6 per cent.

At 12.35pm the Iseq was 6.2 per cent lower at 4,097, a fall of 274 points and a five-year low for the index. It had earlier today dipped below the 4,000 mark.  

Elan, which up until this morning had been the second largest stock on the index by market capitalisation, saw its shares fall over 49 per cent after it told regulators last night of two confirmed cases of a potentially deadly brain disease in patients being treated with Tysabri.

Shares in the pharmaceutical giant had fallen by as a much as 70 per cent at one stage this morning but have rallied to reach 12.35pm at €6.85, bringing the company's market cap to €3.37 billion.

"The market has completely taken out the valuation of Tysabri,'' Dublin-based Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Killian Murphy said. "It seems unlikely now that they'll be able to reach their 100,000 target."

Davy analyst Jack Gorman said although news was a huge blow to Tysabri, it was good that the management programme had identified the patients.

"The impact on neurologist take-up puts our forecasts at serious risk", he said, adding that the brokerage's valuation on the stock was now under review.

Elsewhere there was little to cheer the market with AIB tracking down over 1 per cent to €7.86 while Anglo Irish Bank was 2 per cent lower at €5.02.

Bank of Ireland added almost 1.5 per cent to €5.43 while Irish Life was 0.5 per cent higher at €5.20.