Shire's juggling act

By licensing balsalazide from Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc now has two products to treat ulcerative colitis. SHP already owns U.S. rights to Pentasa as a result of its acquisition of Roberts Pharmaceutical Corp. last year. But the different territories where SHP has rights to the two drugs, as well as differences in their mechanisms of action, have led SHP to conclude that it can position both drugs to compete with the competitor products sold by others, but not each other.

SHP (Slough, U.K.) last week acquired exclusive rights to balsalazide in 14 European countries from SLX (Raleigh, N.C.) for up to $24 million (see B4).SLX retains U.S. rights to the product, which is approved in a number of European countries and has received an approvable letter from the FDA in the U.S. ...