Elan Offices May Move From Ireland to U.S.

Elan Corp. may move its headquarters to the U.S. because most of the management of Ireland’s biggest drug maker will be located in the world’s largest pharmaceutical market.

The company appointed former Merrill Lynch & Co. executive G. Kelly Martin as president and chief executive. Martin said he plans to be based on the West Coast; Chairman Garo Armen is based in New York.

Elan, founded by an American in Ireland in 1969 to research ways to get drugs into the body, was, until July, run by two Irishmen, who left the company because of a U.S. accounting probe and a 94% drop in the stock price.