Drug maker Shire profit up, still no medicine deal

Shire Pharmaceuticals has posted an expected rise in underlying third-quarter earnings, but its shares have fallen on disappointment it had still not closed a long-awaited deal to buy new medicines.

Britain's third-biggest drug maker is looking to buy in products to reduce its reliance on top-selling hyperactivity drug Adderall XR, which accounts for about 50 per cent of drug sales but could face cheap, generic competition from 2006.

Chief executive Matthew Emmens said Shire was in talks with many companies and could still close a deal by the end of this year, as previously hoped, but would not be rushed.

"We could do a deal next week, next month, or in 2 months," he said. "We're not going to do a deal that does not add value to shareholders." Frances Cloud, an industry analyst at Nomura, said investors were tired of waiting.

"These are genuinely a strong set of numbers," she said of Shire's 16 per cent rise in underlying third-quarter earnings. "But what the market wants to hear about is product deals."

At 1350 GMT, Shire's shares were 2.1 per cent lower at 528-1/2 pence, the second-biggest fall on the FTSE-100 index of top UK shares.