It’s not all about Icahn and AMLN/BIIB. Jack Schuler, head of CrabTree Partners, who had blasted Elan CEO Kelly Martin for “gross incompetence,” has been named as one of three people the company proposes to nominate for election to the board at the company’s annual general meeting next month.

Let the battle begin!

Back in late 2008 and early 2009, Schuler, who owns 1% of Elan via CrabTree, blasted Martin and called for his ousting. Schluer said the Tysabri program was mismanaged and questioned using Citigroup to evaluate the company’s strategic actions. Here was Schuler’s comments back in December:

“Lack of relevant industry experience, gross incompetence related to the management of Tysabri and its partnership with Biogen, and egregious misuse of company resources have caused investors to lose confidence in Mr. Martin and his management team. Given the company’s unacceptable performance, the board has a fiduciary obligation to take immediate action.”

Schuler had even started a blog called fixelan.com — which was up even as recent as last week, but was down at the time of this post — to rally fellow shareholders in an attempt to oust Elan management.

Also, as the IrishTimes reports, Martin re-affirmed investors at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference that Elan was on the hunt for a deal:

Mr Martin said on Wednesday that it was in the “last phases” of the strategic review, although he said it could be a year before a deal was agreed….Mr. Martin was asked whether a decision would be announced in the next six months to a year. “I don’t want to put a specific time frame, but in the near term we would hope to reach a conclusion. That’s about as specific as I can get.”

Check out our posts on Elan/CrabTree here, here and here.

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