DUBLIN (AP) -- Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. has trimmed its fourth-quarter net losses and reported a full-year operating profit for the first time since the company nearly went bankrupt amid scandals and research failures a decade ago.
Elan said Tuesday it recorded an October-December net loss of $52.2 million (euro38.2 million), down from a $57.7 million loss in the same quarter of 2009, chiefly by pruning costs.
It recorded a full-year operating profit before exceptional costs of $73 million, its first positive showing since 2001 -- before the company suffered calamitous news on both the scientific and financial fronts from which it is still struggling to recover.
Elan's 2010 net loss ballooned to $324.7 million chiefly because it paid a $206.3 million penalty to the U.S. government over its illegal marketing of an anti-epilepsy drug, Zonegran, for unlicenced purposes from 2000 to 2004.
The settlement, announced in July, required Elan to plead guilty to marketing the seizure-suppressing drug for use in treating obesity, chronic pain and psychiatric disorders, rather than epilepsy.
Analysts said Tuesday's sales figures beat their estimates. Elan shares initially rose 5 percent and were at euro5.20 in afternoon trade, up 2.6 percent on the day, despite broadly negative trade on the Irish Stock Exchange.
Elan's sales remain heavily dependent on the fortunes of one drug, Tysabri, which has market-leading abilities to suppress the paralyzing effects of MS -- but carries a risk of contracting a rare brain-inflaming disease called PML. Elan jointly markets and sells the drug in partnership with Biogen Idec Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Elan said its 2010 share of Tysabri sales worldwide grew 18 percent to $851.5 million, 73 percent of the company's total revenues. Elan's R&D efforts remain focused on developing treatments for two other incurable neurological diseases, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
In 2001 Elan was a stock-picker's favorite because of its headline-grabbing efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's. But in 2002 Elan was caught hiding massive losses in the accounts of subsidiary companies and simultaneously forced to abandon its Alzheimer-related drug in development because trial patients were suffering potentially fatal side effects.
The company since has endured a decade of asset selloffs and research rebuilding and, in 2006, successfully relaunched Tysabri under restricted conditions after the PML danger was discovered, analyzed and successfully addressed with U.S. and European regulators.
Elan said Tuesday it recorded an October-December net loss of $52.2 million (euro38.2 million), down from a $57.7 million loss in the same quarter of 2009, chiefly by pruning costs.
It recorded a full-year operating profit before exceptional costs of $73 million, its first positive showing since 2001 -- before the company suffered calamitous news on both the scientific and financial fronts from which it is still struggling to recover.
Elan's 2010 net loss ballooned to $324.7 million chiefly because it paid a $206.3 million penalty to the U.S. government over its illegal marketing of an anti-epilepsy drug, Zonegran, for unlicenced purposes from 2000 to 2004.
The settlement, announced in July, required Elan to plead guilty to marketing the seizure-suppressing drug for use in treating obesity, chronic pain and psychiatric disorders, rather than epilepsy.
Analysts said Tuesday's sales figures beat their estimates. Elan shares initially rose 5 percent and were at euro5.20 in afternoon trade, up 2.6 percent on the day, despite broadly negative trade on the Irish Stock Exchange.
Elan's sales remain heavily dependent on the fortunes of one drug, Tysabri, which has market-leading abilities to suppress the paralyzing effects of MS -- but carries a risk of contracting a rare brain-inflaming disease called PML. Elan jointly markets and sells the drug in partnership with Biogen Idec Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Elan said its 2010 share of Tysabri sales worldwide grew 18 percent to $851.5 million, 73 percent of the company's total revenues. Elan's R&D efforts remain focused on developing treatments for two other incurable neurological diseases, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
In 2001 Elan was a stock-picker's favorite because of its headline-grabbing efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's. But in 2002 Elan was caught hiding massive losses in the accounts of subsidiary companies and simultaneously forced to abandon its Alzheimer-related drug in development because trial patients were suffering potentially fatal side effects.
The company since has endured a decade of asset selloffs and research rebuilding and, in 2006, successfully relaunched Tysabri under restricted conditions after the PML danger was discovered, analyzed and successfully addressed with U.S. and European regulators.
