US INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY investor Royalty Pharma announced today it has abandoned its bid to take over Irish biotechnology company Elan after repeated rejections by Elan.

Royalty said its $7.9 billion offer had officially elapsed after Elan shareholders backed, by a thin margin, a share repurchase program which Royalty had opposed.

Royalty said it would not seek support from the Irish Takeover Panel to keep its offer alive in the wake of the vote.

“In light of recent developments, we are no longer pursuing the judicial review we had requested,” Pablo Legorreta, Royalty’s chief executive, said in a statement.

On June 10 Dublin-based Elan rejected as “wholly inadequate” Royalty’s latest bid for the company, aimed at getting access to income streams from its portfolio of drugs, including its blockbuster multiple-sclerosis drug Tysabri.

Four days later Elan’s board publicly authorizsed putting the company up for sale, inviting Royalty to participate.

“The Elan Board and management are aligned in maximising the full value potential of the business on behalf of its shareholders,” the company said in a June 14 statement.

- © AFP, 2013

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