Shire BioChem Inc. to support Canada's Access to Medicines Regime to enable a Canadian company (Apotex) to manufacture in Canada a generic fixed dose triple combination antiretroviral medicine that contains a drug (3TC) over which Shire BioChem Inc. holds patent rights in Canada. The medicine will be provided at cost and used for the treatment of HIV infection in Rwanda, an African country with significant HIV prevalence levels.

Canada's Access to Medicines Regime is based on an August 2003 World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement which permits WTO member countries with pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity to issue licences for the manufacture and export of generic versions of patented drugs and medical devices to developing countries that do not have the capacity to manufacture the products themselves. Shire agrees that the compulsory licence should be royalty-free in this instance on the understanding that the medicine will be used to treat the patients for whom it is intended, and that it will be sold to Rwandan authorities by the generic manufacturer at a no profit basis.

Claude Perron, vice president and general manager for Shire in Canada stated: "Shire is pleased to directly assist the global humanitarian effort to help combat HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of this global pandemic's greatest challenges is getting essential medicines directly to those people living with HIV/AIDS who need it most and yet have least access to it. Today's agreement demonstrates that Canada's Access to Medicines Regime is an effective tool to help people living with HIV/AIDS in resource-limited settings access the treatment they need. We are honoured to be part of today's ground-breaking Canadian initiative and trust that this important first step will contribute to improving the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda."

Shire is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company with a strategic focus on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), human genetic therapies (HGT), gastrointestinal (GI) and renal diseases.