February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The company has won a court victory that allows it to charge the prestigious Mayo research foundation license fees for its use of transgenetic mice developed and patented by Elan.
With Elan stock down 90 percent since January, any source of consistent revenue is welcome. The company has been hit by accounting questions after a Wall Street Journal article suggested that it may have a similar accounting record as collapsed energy giant Enron.
Elan patented the mice and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that the company was right to claim license fees for the foundation’s use of the mice.
The DNA of the mice has been suitably modified to contain a mutated human gene called the “Swedish mutation,” as the gene was originally isolated from the cells of a Swedish family who were found to have an unusually high incidence of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
But Elan has not announced how much money the magic mice will bring into its account. Elan, which once trumpeted its arrival on the London FTSE 100 index, was forced to leave the index recently.