DUBLIN, Ireland - Elan Corp. acquired Carnrick Laboratories Inc., of Cedar Knolls, N.J., for US$150 million in a combination of cash and a promissory note.

“Most of it is cash,“ said Donal Geaney, CEO of Dublin-based Elan, which is privately held. Elan recorded net income of more than US$7 million last year on revenues of US$51.2 million, but the purchase of Carnrick will have a neutral effect on earnings in the current year because of loss of interest on the cash that it involves.

Two painkilling drugs - skelaxin and midrin - accounted for almost US$40 million of Carnrick's sales last year. The company has no product pipeline, but Elan gains 130 sales personnel from Carnrick, bringing Elan's U.S. sales force to 280.

Elan, with positive results from Phase III trials of its Neurobloc for cervical dystonia, said it would submit a license application to the FDA and expects to launch the product before the end of next year.

The company carried out pivotal, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled safety and efficacy studies of Neurobloc in two North American centers, studying about 200 patients.

“We have met our efficacy endpoints,“ Paulette Setler, Elan's chief scientific officer, told BioWorld International. She declined to release specific data, but the company said results from the Phase III studies are consistent with those from Phase II trials. Elan said last September it achieved a 77 percent response rate among the highest dose group four weeks after administration of the drug.

“We got no surprises in the Phase III trial,“ Setler said.

Neurobloc is based on botulinum toxin type B, an exotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It prevents the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at nerve-muscle junctions by acting on a protein called synaptobrevin. This is part of a protein complex involved in the docking and fusion of synaptic vesicles at the neuronal membrane prior to acetylcholine release.

The type B toxin is serologically distinct from botulinum toxin type A, which acts on a different component of the same complex. Patients show differing responses to the two proteins, Setler said.

Cervical dystonia is a condition characterized by muscle spasms in the neck, which lead to severe, painful abnormalities of posture or inability to flex and relax the affected neck and shoulder muscles. Botulinum toxins also are considered to be effective in the treatment of other neurological conditions. Elan is exploring these other possibilities, Setler said.

The development of Neurobloc has been partly financed by Axogen Ltd., a Bermuda company established by Elan two years ago to speed up the development of certain drug candidates in its pipeline. *