Shire buys Lumena Pharmaceuticals
Adds to rare disease portfolio with late stage compounds for rare GI/hepatic conditions
Shire has acquired Lumena Pharmaceuticals, a US-based biopharmaceutical company with rare disease pipeline assets. The deal complements Shire’s strategic focus on Rare Diseases and provides a future growth path for Shire’s gGastrointestinal business.
In acquiring Lumena, Shire is gaining experience in liver disease with the opportunity to leverage its existing GI commercial infrastructure. In addition, there is a good fit with Shire’s recent acquisition of Fibrotech, which has brought pipeline programs to address unmet patient need in other fibrotic conditions, including renal impairment.
Lumena Pharmaceuticals brings to Shire two new oral therapeutic compounds: LUM001, in Phase II with four potential orphan indications; and LUM002, ready to enter Phase II later in 2014.
LUM001 and LUM002 are both inhibitors of the apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT), which is primarily responsible for recycling bile acids from the intestine to the liver. Blocking bile acid transport with ASBT inhibitors reduces bile acid absorption and has the potential to improve liver function and relieve disease symptoms (such as extreme itching associated with cholestatic liver diseases), and may slow disease progression.
'These attractive potential treatments may offer new hope to patients with rare cholestatic liver disease and further contribute to Shire’s future growth. We are excited by the possibilities of these new assets in liver disease,' said Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov. 'We have the resources, the infrastructure and the operating capacity to invest in these new potential growth drivers, which add further value to Shire’s innovative pipeline.'