IN SHORT

A round-up of the day's other business news in brief.

New case of brain disease in Tysabri patient

A new case of a potentially fatal brain disease in a patient being treated with Irish biotechnology firm Elan's Tysabri multiple sclerosis drug emerged yesterday, the fourth case reported globally this year.

The latest case of the brain infection, known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), was seen in a European patient who had been taking Tysabri for just over two years, Elan's US partner, Biogen, said in a regulatory filing. "The patient is under physician's care," a spokeswoman said, adding that it was too soon to speculate on the prognosis.

More than 35,500 patients worldwide take Tysabri, which, patients are warned, has a one- in-1,000 risk of PML. - (Reuters)

Key Capital joins adviser network

Dublin corporate finance firm Key Capital has joined the Imap network of corporate advisers, a group comprising 56 companies with offices in 35 countries in Europe, north and south America, Australia and Asia. Imap members, who handled deals with an aggregate transaction value of $9.95 billion (€7.27 billion) in 2007, typically work with sellers of mid-sized companies and corporate acquirers.

Broadband users increase by 6.7%

New data released by ComReg yesterday showed that the number of broadband subscribers grew 6.7 per cent in the third quarter to 1.1 million.

This includes more than 268,000 mobile broadband users. Eircom's share of the fixed-line telecoms market fell by 1 per cent to 67 per cent during the quarter.

Finavera to sell windfarm for $4.5m

Irish-Canadian energy group Finavera Renewables is selling one of its windfarms for $4.5 million (€3.29 million).

The company said yesterday it had agreed to sell its Ghost Pine windfarm in Alberta, Canada, to US-owned Ghost Pine Wind Farm LP.

The company said it intended to use the cash as working capital to support the development of projects in British Columbia and Galway.