Ireland’s Elan (ELN.I) said on Monday it would spin off its Neotope drug discovery business platform as a separate public company in a move making Elan immediately profitable. The decision to split the company comes hard on the heels of the failure of an experimental Alzheimer’s drug being developed with Pfizer (PFE.N) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), although Chief Executive Kelly Martin said it had been planned for more than a year. The move may fuel speculation that Elan, shorn of its loss-making research arm, will be a more attractive takeover target for U.S. biotech company Biogen Idec (BIIB.O), with which it markets the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.
