Winner
Shire
Summary of work
As one of the world’s leading specialty biopharmaceutical companies, Shire markets products in over 50 countries. Through its Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT) business, the company is developing products for and improving patient outcomes in such rare diseases as Fabry disease, Hunter syndrome, Gaucher disease, hereditary angioedema and metachromatic leukodystrophy. Through its Specialty Pharma business, it develops and distributes an innovative portfolio of treatments for patients with ADHD, ulcerative colitis and end-stage renal disease.
Strategic partnerships have fuelled Shire’s rapid growth through acquisitions and mergers designed to fortify development as well as marketed portfolios. In its short history (just over 20 years), the majority of its new products have been added thanks to acquisition or partnership. The only exception being the HGT business.
Some 24 projects are in full development in Shire’s HGT and Specialty Pharma pipeline and 30 per cent of revenue is derived from products launched within the last two years.
During this time, Shire has systematically extended its global reach by building operations in countries including Australia and Argentina, Mexico and Japan, and Russia and Thailand. Shire’s goal by 2015 is for 50 per cent of sales to come from outside traditional US and European markets.
Through countless corporate responsibility initiatives, Shire is supporting programmes ranging from the education of young scientists and beautifying of natural landscapes to the reduction of CO2 emissions and the development of a green-oriented employee family.
Judges’ comments
“A truly European company delivering specialist products in the rare disease arena. Through adopting a highly tailored approach for each small customer group they were decisive about the importance and deep understanding of patient needs and showed real innovation at patient level. Despite the challenges that come with rare products, Shire found an approach that really worked and turned it into a successful European economic business model.”
