New York-based company may acquire Elan Corp.

DUBLIN — Irish drug maker Elan Corp. said Friday it was looking to sell itself off to a New York-based company that invests in drug royalties after rejecting a previous offer.

The company said it would start a process to be acquired by Royalty Pharma, but that shareholders should not put their shares up for sale into another, hostile takeover attempt by Royalty, in which Royalty offered more than $7.7 billion, or $13 per share, plus $2.50 in milestone payments. Elan has rejected that offer, made last week.

Royalty invests in royalty interests in drugs already on the market and undergoing late-stage clinical trials. Its portfolio includes 80% of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's royalty on Amgen's Neupogen (filgrastim) and Neulasta (pegfilgrastim), for which it paid $400 million, and the AstraZeneca's royalties on AbbVie's drug Humira (adalimumab), which it bought for $700 million.

Elan Corp.'s stock was trading at $13.74 per share in mid-afternoon Friday.

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