BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Shire cutting early programs outside of rare diseases

November 8, 2013 1:53 AM UTC

Shire plc (LSE:SHP; NASDAQ:SHPG) said it will focus early stage clinical development "primarily" on rare diseases and will discontinue undisclosed programs outside of rare diseases. A company spokesperson declined to disclose how Shire is defining early stage but said "typically early stage means preclinical and Phase I." Shire's early stage clinical development is conducted at its Basingstoke, U.K., site, which has about 520 employees. The spokesman said the company may terminate up to 180 positions at the site. Shire has about 5,500 employees worldwide.

The move is part of Shire's ongoing reorganization. In May, the company's new CEO Flemming Ornskov unveiled a plan to consolidate the company's business units into a single pipeline structure while maintaining the commercial units (see BioCentury, May 20). ...