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Shire = Greed

SHIRE PLC
Hampshire International Business Park Chineham
Basingstoke
Hampshire RG24 8EP
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1256 894 000
www.shire.com
Founded in 1986, Shire PLC is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company.

U.S. headquarters (derives 74% of revenues from North America):
Shire Specialty Pharmaceuticals
725 Chesterbrook Boulevard
Wayne, PA 19087-5637
(484) 595-8800
Main U.S. manufacturing facilities are in Massachusetts (especially Lexington) and Maryland (Owings Mills). Its main distribution facility is in Florence, Kentucky.

Chief executive: Angus Russell
Employees: 3,400
2009 revenues: $3.0 billion
2009 net income: $491 million (loss) (reflects extraordinary charges relating to a merger and R&D)
Publicly traded on London Stock Exchange; ticker symbol: SHP
American Depository Receipts trade on NASDAQ: ticker symbol: SHPGY

Top Executives

Angus Russell, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Russell succeeded Mr. Emmens as Chief Executive Officer on June 18, 2008 and has been a member of the Board since December 1999. Mr. Russell also serves as a Non-Executive Director of the City of London Investment Trust plc. Between 1980 and 1999, he held a number of positions at ICI, Zeneca and AstraZeneca plc.

In 2008, Mr. Russell received $2,680,000 in compensation from Shire composed of salary, incentive pay and value of benefits. Because it is based abroad, Shire does not provide the same level of detail on executive compensation as U.S. companies.

Matthew Emmens, Chairman
Mr. Emmens became a Non-Executive Board Chairman on June 18, 2008 and has been a member of the Board since March 2003. He was Chief Executive Officer from March 2003 to June 2008. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Incyte Conrporation.

In 2008, Matthew Emmens' compensation was $1,675,000.

 

Board of Directors (with bios from company website)

Matthew Emmens, Chairman
See above

Angus Russell, Chief Executive Officer
See above

Graham Hetherington, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Hetherington has been the Company's Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board since July 1, 2008.

Dr. Barry Price, Non Executive Director
Dr Price has been a member of the Company's Board since January 16, 1996. He also serves as Chairman of Antisoma plc and Summit corporation plc.

David Kappler, Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Mr. Kappler has been a member of the Company's Board since April 5, 2004. Mr. Kappler also serves as the Non-Executive Chairman of Premier Foods plc and as a Non-Executive Director of Intercontinental Hotels Group plc.

Patrick Langlois, Non Executive Director
Mr. Langlois has been a member of the Company's Board since November 11, 2005. Mr. Langlois is a Non-Executive Director of Scynexis Inc., Nanobiotix S.A., and Exonhit S.A.

Kate Nealon, Non Executive Director
Ms. Nealon has been a member of the Company's Board since July 27, 2006. Ms. Nealon is a Non-Executive Director of HBOS plc and Cable & Wireless plc. She is also a Senior Associate at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.

Dr. Jeffrey Leiden, Non Executive Director
Dr. Leiden has been a member of the Company's Board since January 1, 2007. Dr. Leiden served as President and Chief Operating Officer, Pharmaceutical Products Group and Chief Scientific Officer at Abbott Laboratories from 2001-2006; during this time he was also a member of the Boards of Directors of Abbott and TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. Prior to joining Abbott, Dr. Leiden served as the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Leiden is currently a Managing Director at Clarus Ventures LLC.

David Mott, Non Executive Director
Mr. Mott has been a member of the Company's Board since October 31, 2007. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals and Ambit Biosciences and also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Technology Council of Maryland and MdBio.

Dr Michael Rosenblatt, Non Executive Director
Dr. Rosenblatt has been a member of the Company's Board since April 24, 2008. Dr. Rosenblatt is the Dean of Tufts University school of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.

He was previously Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has served in senior research positions at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He was the founding director of the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Rosenblatt has served as Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Board Compensation

The following is the schedule of board compensation adopted by Shire as of January 1, 2009 for attending up to 10 meetings.

2009 Board membership annual basic fees

Chairman of the Board (inclusive of all committees)		$630,428
Senior Non-Executive Director (inclusive of Non-Executive Director fee)		$152,972
Non-Executive Director		$129,794

Committee Membership Fees

Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee Chair		$37,084
Remuneration Committee Chair		$23,178
Nomination Committee Chair		$23,178
Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee member		$18,542
Remuneration Committee member		$13,907
Nomination Committee member		$9,271

Sensitive Issues

Economic Development Subsidies
In 2004 Shire received $3.45 million in grants and tax credits when it located its U.S. headquarters in the Philadelphia suburb of Wayne.

In June 2007 it was reported that Shire was seeking an inventive package from state and local officials in Massachusetts in connection with the company's plan to build a $394 million expansion of its manufacturing and office complex in the Boston suburb of Lexington that would create 680 new jobs over eight years. The company also pressured the legislature to respond favorably to a proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick to have the state create a $1 billion pool of money for biotech incentives. The town of Lexington agreed to give Shire $7.6 million in tax-increment financing subsidies over 20 years. The state later agreed to provide Shire another $40.5 million in tax breaks and infrastructure improvements relating to the project.

Tax Avoidance
Shire caused a controversy in Britain in 2008 when it announced plans to switch its legal headquarters offshore to avoid the British government's plan to get more aggressive about taxing foreign profits. Shire switched its legal incorporation to Jersey, the Channel Island offshore haven, and decided to shift its tax base to Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is less than half that in Britain. "Shire wants to be a good corporate citizen," CEO Angus Russell told the Financial Times in July, but "my job is to provide the most efficient tax structure for my shareholders."

Ethical Conflicts
Shire's marketing of its best-selling amphetamine stimulant Adderall, widely prescribed for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), raises serious ethical questions. In 2002, Shire reportedly bought most copies of an ADHD patient advocacy group's magazine and had sales reps place them in doctors' offices. The Shire-supported magazine cut passages critical of the tendency to over prescribe anti-ADHD drugs from an interview with prominent researcher Dr. William Pelham, and the company pulled funding from a conference organized by Pelham. Pelham later cited some doctors' and groups' "major and undisclosed conflicts of interest" with drug firms like Shire.

After 14 children and six adults died, Canadian regulators in 2005 halted sales of Adderall-XR until new warning guidelines were agreed upon 6 months later.

In 2008 Shire instituted a voluntary recall of a limited portion of Daytrana patches for attention-deficit disorder because of packaging defects. Shire previously received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the problem.

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Below are excerpts from news articles highlighting troubling issues with the company. See for yourself, and draw your own conclusions.