Elan restructures to improve focus
Irish biopharmaceutical company Elan, based in Dublin, has abandoned its divisional structure with the aim of streamlining its business. 'We need to fundamentally change and reshape our organisation to meet the challenges that we face to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company,' said Donal Geaney, Elan's chairman and ceo.
The overall aim of the plan is to focus on three core therapeutic areas that will drive the future growth of the company: neurology, pain management and autoimmune diseases. The company will continue to pursue the acquisition of in-market products with sales potential greater than US$100m (€106m) for the US market and $50m (€53m) for European markets, but is tempering its acquisition programme to retain maximum financial flexibility and liquidity. The company is also continuing to monitor the industry for molecules in development that could be in-licensed to further enhance its existing development pipeline within its core therapeutic areas.
Outside these areas, the company will continue to capitalise on its existing strong market position in areas such as acute care and dermatology in the US and oncology in Europe.
Elan is also repositioning its contract drug delivery service business to be a stand-alone, discrete business within Elan operating from a single site in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, focused primarily on the provision of NanoCrystal and complementary drug delivery technologies. Those drug delivery resources that are integral to Elan's own development and product enhancement activities will be integrated into Elan's global r&d organisation based primarily in Ireland; Gainesville, Georgia; and San Diego and San Francisco, California.
A discrete business unit called Elan Enterprises, with its own dedicated management team, is also being created to optimise the value of the company's business ventures. Currently Elan has approximately 50 business ventures with approximately 30 products in clinical development, four in Phase III/pivotal trials. Those products outside Elan's core therapeutic areas will be evaluated for further investment and eventual out-licensing to suitable marketing partners.
Elan Enterprises will also be responsible for reducing the complexity of Elan's operations over time by divesting businesses and assets that are not strategic to Elan's long-term goals. In the five years from 1996 to 2001 Elan acquired 15 companies in the US and Europe and now has more than 26 sites worldwide and an overly complex geographic and business structure. The organisational changes are effective immediately.
'I am confident that the structure of the new Elan and Elan Enterprises will enable us to implement our action plan and focus on core areas that will drive the future growth of the company,' said Geaney.