Shire interim chief financial officer James Bowling to step down after Q1 2015

James Bowling, interim chief financial officer of Ireland-headquartered drugmaker Shire (LSE: SHP) has stepped down from the position. He is to move to UK water company Severn Trent as chief financial officer at the end of the first quarter of 2015. Shire says it commence a search for a new CFO immediately.

Flemming Ornskov, chief executive officer of Shire, said: “James has helped build and lead a high-quality finance team at Shire. We are very grateful to him for his interim leadership over the past seven months, and his many contributions to Shire in almost ten years with the Company.  We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

This weekend, The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Shire is in discussion with potential acquisition targets, including NPS Pharmaceuticals and biopharma company Cubist, following the collapse of a deal where US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) recommended that its shareholders vote against an agreement to buy Shire. The failure of the deal, worth a proposed $54 billion, sent Shire’s shares falling nearly 30% by Friday.