Shire Plc is a Jersey-registered, Irish-headquartered global specialty biopharmaceutical company. Originating in the United Kingdom with an operational base in the United States, its brands and products include Vyvanse, Lialda, and Adderall XR. Shire has its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Shire has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

Shire is a global biotechnology company focused on serving people with rare diseases and other highly specialized conditions. The company's products are available in more than 100 countries across core therapeutic areas including Hematology, Immunology, Neuroscience, Lysosomal Storage Disorders, Gastrointestinal / Internal Medicine / Endocrine and Hereditary Angioedema; a growing franchise in Oncology; and an emerging, innovative pipeline in Ophthalmics.

The original corporate headquarters was located in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. Main offices are located in Dublin, Ireland, the United States in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois and in Zug, Switzerland. In addition, Shire owns a manufacturing site in Lexington, Massachusetts and building a new manufacturing facility in Dublin, Ireland. It announced in November 2013 that it would be further reducing its presence in the UK.

Shire was founded in 1986 in the UK by four entrepreneurs. These four entrepreneurs were Harry Stratford, Dennis Stephens, Peter Moriarty, and Geoff Hall. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996. Shire's initial products were calcium supplements (Calcichew-D₃) for patients seeking to treat or prevent osteoporosis. In 1997 the company acquired Pharmavene for £105 million in order to access Pharmavene's drug delivery methods. Later in the same year Shire acquired Richwood Pharmaceutical Company, forming Shire-Richwood Inc.

In 2001 the company acquired Biochem Canada. Shire's next acquisition didn't come until 2005 when it acquired Transkaryotic Therapeutics and two years later - in 2007 - New River Pharmaceuticals Inc, for a then company record of $2.6 billion. With the purchase of New River, Shire gained access and ownership of Vyvanse. A year late the company acquired the German company Jerini, for $521 million. Jerini focused on treating hereditary angioedema.

In 2008, in reaction to new taxation measures announced by the Labour Party in the treatment of royalties on patents, the company moved its tax domicile to Dublin, Ireland.

2010 saw a change in company strategy, with the company seeking to expand through mergers and acquisitions - culminating in the company becoming one of the most acquisitive in the industry. In 2010 the company acquired Movetis, a Belgian company focusing on gastrointestinal products for $565 million, a year later it acquired regenerative medicine manufacturer Advanced BioHealing. In 2012 the company acquired FerroKin BioSciences for $325 million along with FerroKins lead iron chelator - FBS0701. 2013 saw the company complete its highest number of acquisitions with Lotus Tissue Repair, Inc. (lead compound, ABH001), SARcode Bioscience Inc., with the last being ViroPharma. Shire changed the name of ViroPharma to Shire Viropharma Inc. upon acquisition and on their final day of trading the company was valued at $3.3 billion. At $4.2 billion, ViroPharma set a new company record. In 2014 Shire acquired two rare disease drug companies; Fibrotech with its antifibrotic compounds for $75 million and Lumena, a company researching rare gastro-intestinal and hepatic compounds, for $260 million.

In 2015, NPS Pharmaceuticals was acquired for $5.2 billion, bringing along its rare disease drugs Gattex and Natpara. On their final day of trading, NPS had a market capitalisation of $4.99 billion. The company also acquired, later in the same year Meritage Pharma for $245 million, Foresight Biotherapeutics for $300 million and Dyax for $6.5 billion. The purchases bolstered Shires Gastro-intestinal and rare disease sectors, with Phase-III ready treatment - Budesonide - for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis. As well as expanding the company's pipeline with a late-stage treatment candidate for infectious conjunctivitis with lead candidate FST-100 and increased the companies rare disease catalogue with Dyax’s portfolio of plasma kallikrein inhibitors against hereditary angioedema (led by the approved drug Kalbitor and the Phase III DX-2930). In January 2016, the company made its most significant purchase, with the $32 billion acquisition of Baxalta (Which had been spun-off from Baxter the previous year), creating the largest global biotech company focused solely on rare diseases.

On 20 June 2014, Shire rejected a takeover attempt by AbbVie. AbbVie offered £46.11 per share (£27.3 billion or $46.5 billion in total). On 8 July the offer was increased to $51.5 billion. On 18 July, it was announced that AbbVie would acquire Shire for $54.8 billion. On 15 October, news broke suggesting AbbVie was reconsidering their proposed takeover deal due to changes in US "Tax Inversion" law and on 16 October AbbVie's board recommended that shareholders vote against the deal. This news sent Shire's share price down over 27%, however AbbVie will be subject to a $1.6 billion break up fee, payable to Shire. On 21 October the merger was called off.

Click show to reveal an illustration of Shire mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, and historical predecessors, complete as of this date.

Baxalta
(Acq 2016 by Shire)

Dyax
(Acq 2015 by Shire)

Foresight Biotherapeutics
(Acq 2015 by Shire)

Meritage Pharma
(Acq 2015 by Shire)

NPS Pharmaceuticals
(Acq 2015 by Shire)

Lumena
(Acq 2014 by Shire)

Fibrotech
(Acq 2014 by Shire)

ViroPharma
(Acq 2013 by Shire)

Lev Pharmaceuticals

SARcode Bioscience Inc
(Acq 2013 by Shire)

Premacure AB
(Acq 2013 by Shire)

Lotus Tissue Repair, Inc
(Acq 2013 by Shire)

FerroKin BioSciences
(Acq 2012 by Shire)

Movetis
(Acq 2012 by Shire)

Advanced BioHealing
(Acq 2011 by Shire)

Jerini
(Acq 2008 by Shire)

New River Pharmaceuticals Inc
(Acq 2007 by Shire)

Transkaryotic Therapeutics
(Acq 2005 by Shire)

Biochem Canada
(Acq 2001 by Shire)

Richwood Pharmaceutical Company
(Acq 1997 by Shire)

Pharmavene
(Acq 1997 by Shire)

The Annual Revenue figures in the following table were drawn from the company's 2015 full year report of preliminary results.

In July 2014, Shire licensed the rights to the investigational Hunter syndrome compound, AGT-182, from ArmaGen for up to $225 million.

The Annual Revenue figures in the following Table were drawn from the company's Q4 report of preliminary results.

As of March 2016, the leadership of the company is provided by its CEO, Flemming Ørnskov, who has been the company's chief executive officer since mid-2013. Ginger Gregory as Chief Human Resources Officer, Jeffrey Poulton as CFO, and Philip Vickers as Head of R&D. James Bowling vacated his position as interim CFO in the aftermath of the collapse o the AbbVie inversion deal. The Chair of Shire's Board of Directors is Susan Kilsby.