Johnson & Johnson has bought all of Elan’s Assets in their Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program for $1 billion and will receive 18.4 percent of company shares as part of the deal.

JNJ will also pump $500 million into a new company to continue the development of the Elan and Wyeth's drug bapineuzumab, which is said to combat the spread of Alzheimer's.

JNJ and Elan will split equity in the company 50.1/49.9 per cent respectively.

Elan and Wyeth created bapineuzumab together and Johnson & Johnson confirmed they would continue to work with Wyeth on these projects.

Elan has its headquarters in Dublin and this deal comes at a good time,  as the company was suffering from high debt and had been sending out feelers in the market that it was open for offers.