UK's Shire To Expand Blood Drug Portfolio With US Biotech Buy

U.K. drug maker Shire PLC (SHP.LN) Thursday said it is expanding its portfolio of blood disease therapies by buying FerroKin BioSciences, a closely held U.S. biotechnology firm, for up to $325 million, including an upfront cash payment of $100 million.

Shire, a specialist in drugs for hyperactivity and rare genetic diseases, said FerroKin offers attractive assets for developing treatments for treat blood disorders. The U.S. company's main drug candidate, FBS0701, is being tested in adults and children with iron overload and is currently in mid-stage clinical trials.

Excess iron in vital organs such as the liver and heart increases the risk of organ failure and is the principal cause of death in transfusion-dependent patients. Drugs that treats the condition are called iron chelators.

There is a huge chronic need for treatment of iron overload in patients who have had many blood transfusions. Shire estimates the market is worth $900 million a year, and is growing.

"We're all about growth at Shire. We want to expand our hematology franchise and the acquisition of FerroKin is a key element of that," said Lawson Macartney, senior vice president at the company's emerging business unit.

He said FerroKin's iron chelator performed well in Phase II trials and has an attractive safety profile. "Those performances offer enormous opportunity for this drug," he told Dow Jones Newswires.

Macartney said the current leading drug in treating iron overload, Novartis AG's (NVS) Exjade, "is an effective therapy but it's not terribly well tolerated--it has caused some problems for patients--and so we think there's a tremendous opportunity to differentiate this molecule [FBS0701]. And this will really make a difference for patients."

Shire hopes to launch its anti-iron overload capsule as early as 2016.

FerroKin BioSciences' key employees, including its founder and chief executive, Hugh Young Rienhoff, will provide consulting services to Shire during the transition period and as the product progresses through late-stage trials, Macartney said.

"Our focus is to make sure that we seamlessly integrate this new molecule into Shire's existing pipeline and optimize the development process, and Hugh has agreed to give us his considerable expertise and skill during this transitional period," Macartney said.

-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292; sten.stovall@dowjones.com

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