Shire image

Shire delivers record revenues

pharmafile | February 16, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing ADHD, AbbVie, Shire, Viropharma, Vyvanse, intuniv, lialda 

Shire has posted strong growth in its full-year results, showing that the company is faring well even after the collapse of its deal with AbbVie.

In the fourth-quarter of the year, total revenues grew by 19% from the same period in 2013 to $1.5 billion – however, the Irish firm said it was held back by significantly lower sales of ADHD drug Intuniv (guanfacine), which lost its patents at the beginning of December, as well as headwinds from the strengthening US dollar.

Intuniv’s generic competition had less impact on Shire’s full year results, with record revenues of $6 billion in 2014, an increase of 22% over 2013.

Chief executive Flemming Ornskov expects it to have a stronger effect in 2015, but remains optimistic: “2014 was a transformational year for Shire as we delivered on our strategy by achieving record revenues and developing the strongest pipeline in our history.

“Following an exceptional 2014, we expect to deliver further growth in 2015 despite significant foreign currency headwinds, the loss of exclusivity for Intuniv, and the inclusion of Cinryze in our 2014 results.”

Much of the growth was driven by the Shire’s acquisition of rare-disease firm ViroPharma at the beginning of the year, which contributed 12% of product sales growth in both the Q4 and full-year results.

Across 2014 ViroPharma’s products contributed $538 million in sales. The large majority of this ($503 million) was from ViroPharma’s hereditary angioedema medicine Cinryze (C1 esterase inhibitor).

Most of the growth amongst Shire’s own products came from Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) (up 18% to $1.4 billion), Lialda (mesalamine, which climbed 20% to $634 million), Vpriv (velaglucerase alfa) (up 7% to $367 million), and Firazyr (icatibant injection) (increasing 55% to $364 million).

Elaprase (idursulfase) and Replagal (agalsidase alfa) also contributed much to the growth, with their sales up by 9% to $593 million and by 7% to $500 million respectively, but they flagged in the fourth-quarter due to the timing of large orders from customers who order less frequently.

Shire recently acquired another rare diseases company, NPS Pharma, as it continues trying to enhance its profile after AbbVie backed out of buying the Irish firm. As a result of AbbVie cancelling that deal, Shire received a break fee of around $1.6 billion. Both the break fee and the costs associated with the terminated deal were included in its 2014 results.

George Underwood

 

Related Content

Medincell and AbbVie enter agreement for development of next-generation injectables

Medincell and AbbVie have announced that they have entered into a collaboration to co-develop and …

AbbVie to acquire Landos Biopharma for approximately $137.5m

AbbVie and Landos Biopharma have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under …

AbbVie and Tentarix collaborate on oncology and immunology treatments

AbbVie and Tentarix Biotherapeutics have announced that they have entered a multi-year collaboration focused on …

Latest content