Shire Acquires Rare Disease BioPharma Company Luemana Pharmaceuticals

To strengthen its gastrointestinal (GI) pipeline, the specialty pharmaceutical company Shire plc has acquired Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company with rare-disease pipeline assets. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

In acquiring Lumena, Shire is gaining experience in liver disease with the opportunity to leverage its existing GI commercial infrastructure. The move also provides 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 development with four potential orphan indications and LUM002, ready to enter Phase II trials 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.

Source: Shire

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