J&J buys $1 billion stake in Elan

LONDON (Reuters) - ELAN on Thursday announced Johnson & Johnson would acquire most assets and rights related to its Alzheimer''s immunotherapy program.

* Johnson & Johnson will initially commit up to $500 million to develop and launch activities of bapineuzumab

* J&J will invest $1 billion in Elan in exchange for newly issued American depositary receipts (adrs)

* Johnson & Johnson investment will represent 18.4% of elan''s outstanding ordinary shares

* J&J will continue elan''s activities with Wyeth

* Elan will receive a 49.9% equity interest in the newly formed Johnson & Johnson Company

* Transaction will have an estimated dilutive impact of $0.02 to $0.03 on

Johnson & Johnson 2009 adjusted EPS