CIRC PHARMA will also commercialise a "number of other development stage product opportunities", according to a spokesman.

Mulligan is chairman of Circ Pharma and an executive team will be appointed in coming months to run the business.

"There are no requirements or plans to raise additional funds for the business in the short term, " added the spokesman.

Mulligan, who was Elan's chief technology officer, established Azur Pharma 18 months ago. He raised 40m for the start-up, which will invest in US drug brands that are nearing the end of their patents or are underperforming. He is understood to have personally invested roughly 18m in the firm.

Athpharma, which was founded by former Elan executive John Devane, sold rights to four of its cardiovascular drugs to Canadian firm Biovail in 2003 for 41m.

Mulligan is one of a number of former Elan executives involved in pharmaceutical start-ups.

Others include former chief financial officer Tom Lynch, who established a firm called Amarin that is listed on the Nasdaq. It has a market capitalisation of $214m.

Lynch owns an 11% stake.

BEWLEYS HOTELS franchise owner, Bert Allen's SLANEY GROUP, has sold a hotel in central Glasgow for over 15m. The group intends to expand its mainland European property interests and concentrate on larger hotel operations.

The 104-bedroom Glasgow property has been acquired by Rossmark Hotel Group. It is a subsidiary of Baronsgate Estates, a Scottish development and investment company. The Slaney Group opened the hotel in 2000 and it was its first British operation. The new owners said the Glasgow premises will continue to operate under current management and with the Bewley name for the time being, but that it will be refurbished and relaunched with a new concept later this year.

The Slaney Group also owns hotels in Leeds and Manchester as well as in Dublin. It recently opened a 466-bedroom hotel beside Dublin airport. The company also owns a hotel near Avignon in France.

Allen and his brother Lance own 50% of Slaney Foods, one of Ireland's largest meat processing companies. In the year ended September 2005 it reported revenues of 200m and a pre-tax profit of 3.7m.

CITY CHANNEL has made it to its first birthday having achieved its goal of making an operating profit. Station exec David Harvey (below) said the channel, which is expanding its availability from NTL digital service in Dublin to Waterford and Galway, addressing some 165,000 homes, moved into operating profit in the last three months. While the station has not found favour with advertising agencies . . .

95% of its sales are direct . . .

Harvey said the cost of setting up the station was around 1.3m and moving into operating profit in under a year proved it was a sound decision.

XEROX European support operations, in Ballycoolin, Dublin, said on Friday it would see a significant increase in business as a result of a global contract to provide equipment to aerospace, electronics and transport firm HONEYWELL.

Xerox employs 120 people in Ballycoolin and 1,400 across Ireland.