Elan to suspend shares for two days

Drug firm Elan is to pull its shares from trading for two days as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews its troubled multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri.

Elan said that it reached agreement with the New York Stock Exchange, Irish Stock Exchange and the UK Financial Services Authority to suspend trading in its stock on March 7th as the advisory committee review takes place.

“When the advisory committee meeting is complete, the company will request the stock exchanges to resume trading,” it said in a statement.

The announcement comes almost a year after Tysabri, developed with Biogen Idec, was withdrawn following fears that it could cause rare brain disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). During a clinical trial of the drug two MS patients contracted the disease, and one later died.

The Bloomberg news agency also reported that scientists had discovered the drug to reduce immune system levels to those seen in HIV patients.

Neurologists from the University of Texas, in a paper due to be published by the American Academy of Neurology, found that immune system cells in the spinal fluid of patients taking the drug fell significantly.

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