For those of you who thought that Elan's success in the pharma business was largely down to a load of research and development boffins closeted in gleaming labs, Current Account can reveal that Elan is now turning to sea snails for a new product for treating chronic pain.

Since the 1970s, when Roche explored Australia's Great Barrier Reef (without success), pharma companies have looked at the idea of exploiting natural marine substances to develop new products. But 30 years after Roche looked at coral reefs, very little from the ocean deep has been developed into new drug treatments.

But now it seems that Elan has won conditional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)for a new product called Prialt, which comes from a tropical cone snail that stabs its prey with a poisoned harpoon! Prialt is being developed to treat severe chronic pain in cancer and AIDS patients, and may get final FDA clearance later this year.