Shire Pharmaceuticals Appoints Anita Graham to the Newly Created Position of Chief Administrative Officer

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announced today that Anita Graham has been appointed Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Vice President (EVP) of Corporate Business Services. In this newly created role, Anita is responsible for leading the Corporate Business Services Group, which consists of Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance Operations, Global Procurement Services, Corporate Communications, Global Facilities and Real Estate Management. The goal is for these functions to deliver high-quality, efficient services across the business to support Shire's growth. This new structure was created to help facilitate Shire's continued expansion while maintaining a highly strategic focus on the development of Shire's people, systems and key business processes.

"This newly created role puts Shire at the industry forefront in the creation of a Business Services Group that supports our rapid growth with an increased focus on integrated business services," said Matthew Emmens, Chief Executive Officer of Shire. "With her recent success leading our human resources function over the past three years, Anita has demonstrated that she is up to the challenge of leading this part of our business, which will make a major contribution to our long-term success."

Anita has been with Shire since January 2004, joining as Shire's first EVP of Human Resources. She was previously Vice President of Human Resources at Cytyc Corporation. Anita also held senior human resources positions at Serono, Inc. and Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc. (now part of Deutsche Bank) and has extensive business experience, both in Europe and the US.

In the past 36 months, Shire has more than doubled its global staff, and today employs 3,349 people around the world. Shire's global headquarters are in Basingstoke, UK, and its US headquarters are in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which is the site of Anita's primary office.

"With many areas of Shire expanding rapidly, the formation of this new Business Services Group will help to ensure that our organizational structure continues to be coordinated and robust, allowing Shire to remain focused on delivering exceptional results for our shareholders, employees and the patients who rely on Shire medicines," said Anita Graham, Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Business Services. "I am very excited to have this opportunity, and look forward to adding value as we continue to execute on our growth strategy, launch new medicines and build our pipeline."

About SHIRE PLC

Shire's strategic goal is to become the leading specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on ADHD, human genetic therapies (HGT), gastrointestinal (GI) and renal diseases. The structure is sufficiently flexible to allow Shire to target new therapeutic areas to the extent opportunities arise through acquisitions. Shire believes that a carefully selected portfolio of products with a strategically aligned and relatively small-scale sales force will deliver strong results.

Shire's focused strategy is to develop and market products for specialty physicians. Shire's in-licensing, merger and acquisition efforts are focused on products in niche markets with strong intellectual property protection either in the US or Europe.

For further information on Shire, please visit the Company's website: www.shire.com

CONTACT: Matthew Cabrey, +1-484-595-8248, mcabrey@shire.com, for Shire plc

Web site: http://www.shire.com/