Shire plc is a rapidly growing global specialty biopharmaceutical company.

Shire has a global sales and marketing infrastructure with a broad portfolio of products and its own direct marketing capability in the US, Canada, UK, Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

As one of the world's leading specialty biopharmaceutical companies, Shire has emerged as a company fully focused on a single purpose: to enable people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.

Through our Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT) business, we pursue opportunities on behalf of patients and families facing such rare diseases as Fabry disease, Hunter syndrome, Gaucher disease, hereditary angioedema, and metachromatic leukodystrophy-patients whose very lives often hinge on the discovery and delivery of extraordinary medicines. Through our Specialty Pharma business, meanwhile, we develop and distribute an innovative portfolio of treatments for patients with ADHD, ulcerative colitis, and end-stage renal disease. Our commitment throughout is on symptomatic diseases, treated by specialist physicians. We take the risks we need to take so that we might change lives for the discernible better.

Strategic partnerships have fueled Shire's rapid growth-acquisitions and mergers designed to fortify development as well as marketed portfolios. In the twenty plus years of Shire's short history, the majority of our new products have joined our stable of existing medicines via an acquisition or partnership. The only exception being our HGT business, where development of enzyme replacement therapies from early phases is lower risk than the discovery of small molecules and we have an active in-house early research capability. Today nearly two dozen projects are in full development in Shire's HGT and Specialty Pharma pipeline and 30 percent of our revenue is derived from products launched within the last two years.