UK's Shire To Expand Blood Drug Portfolio With US Biotech Buy
March 15 2012 - 10:32AM
Dow Jones News
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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