Recent News Stories Shire Co-Pay Assistance Program All of us at Shire recognize that the life-altering diseases and conditions we develop treatments for require specialized service and support offerings. We regularly review our programs to ensure the patient remains at the center of everything we do. In recent months we held a series of focus group meetings with patients, caregivers and physicians, and solicited input from the community via a survey posted to our OnePath.com website. This feedback directly influenced the development of a very exciting new program from Shire that has been designed to remove barriers associated with access to our rare disease therapies – an area of key concern identified by the community.  The initiative outlined here reflects our commitment to the rare disease community and our desire to be a long-lasting partner.    New Co-Pay Assistance Program In addition to our existing patient assistance programs and our support of many patient associations, Shire HGT will provide co-pay assistance for eligible patients in the U.S. who have commercial prescription insurance.    This program includes all eligible MPS II patients.  Additional Program Details: · Shire will pay eligible patients’ insurance co-pay for prescription expenses for first 3 months of therapy in 2010.   · In 2011, we intend to cap eligible patients’ out of pocket prescription expenses at $500. · This program is a Shire-initiated and Shire-managed program. It will supplement the efforts that organizations like the National MPS Society currently have in place to defray other medical-related costs associated rare disease treatments. · Enrollment in our program can be initiated with a phone call. This new program will take effect March 1, 2010 and will apply to eligible patients receiving approved Shire products in the U.S. Information about additional program restrictions and eligibility requirements is available by contacting a OnePathSM case manager at the number below. More information on the OnePathSM Co-Pay Assistance Program can be accessed at www.onepath.com, or by calling 1-866-888-0660. Case managers are available to answer questions Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time. From all of us at Shire, thank you for your continued support and for everything you do for the rare disease community.  My best regards, Sylvie Gregoire, President Shire Human Genetic Therapies MPS Society in the UK Commits $250,000 toward MPS III Research The MPS Society in UK recently committed $250,000 to fund the research of Professor Grzegorz Wegrzyn in Gdansk, Poland, "Development of Gene Expression-Targeted Isoflavone Therapy (GET IT) for Mucopolysaccharidosis Type III". Below is the statement from the UK MPS Society about this research. More... Scientific protocol for treating children with severe MPS I with a combination of Stem Cell Transplantation and Enzyme Replacement Therapy at the University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota has been a pioneer in the treatment of children with severe MPS I, also called Hurler syndrome, and other storage disorders using stem cell transplantation (i.e., bone marrow or cord blood transplantation). To date, approximately 100 transplants have been performed at the University of Minnesota for Hurler syndrome alone. More...