Shire and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have announced a three-year, broad research collaboration for rare diseases. The goal of the collaboration is 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 experience.

Cincinnati Children's has experience in many fields of research that align with Shire's therapeutic areas of focus including, rare diseases, gastroenterology, nephrology and neurology. The partnership underscores Shire's long-term commitment to bringing innovative therapies to patients living with rare diseases around the world.

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