Room for a New Megacompany in Rare Disease?

August 4, 2014 | Shire, the Dublin-headquartered pharma company increasingly reliant on its rare disease portfolio, is making an aggressive move to acquire the newly spun-off biotech company Baxalta, which has hardly been independent of its former parent company Baxter for a month. Although Baxalta's management has already declined an acquisition, Shire is making its offer known to Baxalta shareholders, still hoping a big merger can make it the global leader in rare disease as incentives to pursue orphan indications continue to grow. FierceBiotech