Brokers positive over prospects for Elan

Pharmaceutical group Elan also gets a positive review from the broking community

Pharmaceutical group Elan also gets a positive review from the broking community. Dolmen Butler Briscoe says the company met and exceeded certain of its expectations with its latest results announcement.

It also notes that Elan has a number of new drugs coming online which are currently proving very successful in clinical trials and are expected to secure approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These drugs are for relatively common ailments such as migraine and could achieve high sales revenue, Dolmen Butler Briscoe says.

"We estimate that Elan will achieve a price/earnings ratio of 21.7 this year and that it is cheap relative to the market and accordingly we rate it as a buy," analyst Marion Lynch says in the note.