Shire and Cincinnati Children's Hospital collaborate on rare disease research

Ireland-headquartered drugmaker Shire (LSE: SHP) has entered into a three-year broad research collaboration for rare diseases with the USA's Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for rare diseases.

The collaboration is intended to discover and develop novel therapies to treat rare diseases with high unmet medical need, combining Shire’s development and commercialization capabilities with Cincinnati Children’s research knowledge.

Shire will make an initial upfront payment to the hospital and will have the opportunity to fund and offer scientific support to selected research programs. The emphasis will be on opportunities with the potential to deliver a development candidate in less than three years from project initiation. Shire will have an exclusive option to enter into a licensing agreement following the completion of each program, and will be responsible for any further development and commercialization undertaken.