Dyax's Threat to $630,000 Shire Drug Makes It a Target

Dyax Corp.’s promising treatment for a rare genetic disorder threatens Dublin-based Shire Plc’s fastest-growing medicine. That makes the $3.6 billion U.S. biotechnology company a potential takeover target.

Shire’s Cinryze is the only approved therapy right now to prevent bouts of hereditary angioedema, or HAE, a disease that can be fatal. The treatment, which costs as much as $630,000 annually, generated $503 million of revenue last year and is projected to become Shire’s second-biggest drug by 2017.