Shares in Elan Corp lost a quarter of their value and hit a two-year low today as concerns over its accounting practices came sharply into focus in the wake of the Enron affair.
Elan, which was knocked earlier this month by a setback in clinical trials of its groundbreaking Alzheimer's vaccine AN-1792, was trading down 24 per cent in Dublin at EEE31.31 by 3.30 p.m.
In New York, where the bulk of the shares are traded, the stock was off 25 per cent at $25.65.
With Elan's weighting making up around a fifth of the ISEQ index of leading Irish shares the Irish market as a whole was off more than 5.5 per cent in mid-afternoon.
The main accounting issue centres on research and development joint ventures, of which the company has more than 50, and the practice of investing money in such operations and then taking back a large chunk as licensing fees which are booked as revenues.