Shire announces acquisition of Foresight Biotherapeutics

Shire has announced a new deal to acquire Foresight Biotherapeutics, a New York-based privately held healthcare company specialising in the field of ophthalmics.

The $300 million (192.34 million pounds) transaction gives Shire global rights to FST-100, a therapy in late-stage development for the treatment of infectious conjunctivitis, commonly referred to as pink eye.

This strengthens Shire's late-stage pipeline and will complement its existing work on lifitegrast, which is in late-stage development for treatment of dry eye disease.

If approved by regulatory agencies, FST-100 has the potential to become the first agent to treat both viral and bacterial conjunctivitis.

Dr Flemming Ornskov, chief executive officer of Shire, said: "With the acquisition of Foresight Biotherapeutics, Shire demonstrates its commitment to eye care while advancing its strategy of addressing high unmet medical need through transformative treatments for rare diseases and specialty medicines."

This follows the company's acquisitions of Meritage Pharma and NPS Pharma earlier this year.