Elan reported a strong set of results on 31 January in its core business, more than hitting its earnings and cost saving targets set in March 2005 after Tysabri had been withdrawn from the market. Fully diluted losses per share were 26.5% less than forecast at $0.14 from revenue12.4% ahead of expectations at $140.4m.

Goodbody notes that in the core business, hospital products continued to perform strongly, with Maxipime sales hitting a high of $46.8m. Elan has indicated that demand is strong and past problems have been rectified. With the possibility of Tysabri back on the shelves soon, pending a review of new data by US regulators on 7 March, the shares are a buy.

SurfControl SELL

SurfControl, whose software helps block unwanted email, reported a second-quarter loss last week.

The net loss for the three months ended 31 December was $282,000 compared with a profit of $2.4m a year earlier, the company reported.

Severance pay, leases and third-party service contracts cost $3.5m in the quarter. Chief executive Patricia Sueltz said:

"The difficulty we were having was although we have great products, we were not telling the story as effectively as we might have done." However, prospects are not good for the future as its growth rate is below its main rivals. The shares are a sell at at 32 times forecast earnings.