Elan Pharmaceuticals issued $1.15 billion in loan notes last night, well in excess of the $850 million it had previously announced it intended to sell.

The additional funds raised appear to relate to strong market demand.

Elan had said the $850 million would be split between fixed and floating rate notes. In the event, it sold $850 million in seven-year fixed notes and an additional $300 million in floating notes, also due in 2011.

The money raised from the bond issue will help fund the marketing costs of the launch of Antegren, which is expected to receive regulatory approval before November 25th. It will also go to repay earlier loan notes issued by subsidiary EPIL III.

The fixed notes, which cannot be bought back for four years, will yield 3.87 percentage points over US Treasuries, while the floating notes, which cannot be repurchased by Elan for two years, carry a spread of 400 basis points over the three-month London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

Both Moody's and S&P gave the bonds their sixth-highest junk bond rating.