The multimillionaire founder of the hugely successful Galen pharmaceutical company was named yesterday in a Northern Ireland High Court action brought on behalf of more than 120 doctors and chemists from Northern Ireland.
Sir Allen McClay, from Cookstown, Co Tyrone, was joined as a respondent in the case in which the mainly retired GPs and chemists are claiming substantial damages. They were shareholders in three companies: Galen (Tyrone) Ltd, Galen (Belfast) Ltd and Galen (Craigavon) Ltd, whose names were respectively changed to investment companies known as Hypnos, Acis and Howe.
Barrister Michael Humphries, appearing for two doctors and the son of one who has died, applied for an order restoring the three investment companies to the companies' register.
He said restoration was the rule rather than the exception and when that was done claims would be lodged against Sir Allen and Robert Robinson, another director, who was also named as a respondent.
An affidavit sworn by one of the applicants, Ronald Montgomery, son and administrator of the estate of his late father, Dr Joseph Montgomery, of Harberton Drive, Belfast, stated that his father was one of the original investors in Galen (Craigavon) Ltd, one of the three companies which, he said, provided much of the seed investment for Galen Ltd in 1967. Mr Montgomery said that in 1970 the shares in Galen Ltd, owned by the three investment companies, were transferred into the names of Mr McClay and Mr Robinson without any consideration being paid, and without any agreement to transfer being in existence.
He said that, in the mid-1980s, Mr Robinson in effect transferred his shares to Dr JA King, who later replaced him as a director.
The affidavit went on to claim that, as a result of further restructuring, Mr McClay and Dr King held all the shares in Galen Holdings, which held all the shares in Gaelta Research and Development Ltd, which in turn held all the shares in Galen Ltd.
"Ultimately, in July 1997, Galen Holdings plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange with resultant huge profits to McClay and King," Mr Montgomery alleged in his affidavit.
He said that over the years he had tried to discover what happened to his late father's investment. "All the information I received . . . indicates that the shares belonging to the investment companies were transferred for no consideration and without their consent," he said.
Mark Orr QC, for Sir Allen and Mr Robinson, said Galen was acquired two years ago by Warner Chillcott plc and, as the papers were in London, he needed time to file an affidavit.
High Court master Fiona Kelly adjourned the hearing until October 24th and ordered that Sir Allen and Mr Robinson should be joined as respondents.
