Shire agrees to buy German company

Shire PLC, the British pharmaceutical company that employs about 685 people in Massachusetts, said today it has agreed to buy a German firm called Jerini AG in a deal valued at about $549 million.

Jerini has an orphan drug candidate in the pipeline; the candidate, FIRAZYR, is a potential treatment for hereditary angiodema, a rare and potentially life threatening
genetic disease, said Shire, which noted that FIRAZYR could generate annual global sales of as much as $400 million.

The US Food and Drug Administration initially declined to approve FIRAZYR, but Shire is confident that it can overcome the FDA's objections, a company spokesman said. Shire added that it expects FIRAZYR to launch in Europe later this year.

Much of the work that will be needed to win the FDA's OK of the drug candidate is expected to happen at company facilities in Cambridge and Lexington, a Shire spokesman said.

With orphan-drug status, a pharmaceutical company is granted exclusivity to market a drug for a period of a time without competition from other manufacturers.

Orphan drug laws seek to provide financial incentives to pharmaceutical firms to develop drugs that affect only a small number of people.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)