As Its Big Drug Aged Shire Thought Small

摘要

In 2005, Shire faced a scenario now familiar to most of the world's drugmak-ers. Its best-selling pill, an attention-deficit treatment called Adderall XR, was about to lose patent protection, jeopardizing half its revenue. Shire's response was to pay $1.6 billion for Transkaryot-ic Therapies, an unprofitable company with more debt than sales, and a handful of drugs for rare genetic diseases that afflict as few as 2,000 people globally.Shire's stock fell 11 percent in two days as investors questioned the wisdom of the deal. Since then, however, shares have more than tripled, making Shire the second-best stock performer among the world's 30 biggest drugmakers.