Shire BioChem Sells Vaccines Business to ID Biomedical

Shire BioChem Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc, signed an asset purchase agreement on April 19, 2004 to sell its vaccines business to ID Biomedical Corp., a Canadian-based biotechnology company, for an aggregate phased consideration of US$120 million. As part of the agreement, Shire will provide a US$100 million loan facility to help fund the development of the vaccines business, which will be repayable out of income generated on future sales.

The Shire group was represented in-house by Tatjana May and Matthew McIlroy, Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc, in the UK, and by Paul Pinsonnault and Isabelle Robitaille, Shire BioChem Inc., in Canada. Shire was also represented by Stikeman Elliott, with a team that included Jean Marc Huot, Louis Morisset, Sophie Lamonde, John Segleski, Neville McClure, Kristian Littmann and Thomas Wachowski (corporate), Sterling Dietze and Scott Perrin (financing), Josée Gravel (real estate), Luc Bernier and Frédéric Harvey (Canadian tax) and Eugene Derényi and Dominique Babin (intellectual property).

ID Biomedical was represented by Borden Ladner Gervais, with a team that included Ian Webb, Warren Learmonth and Fred Enns (corporate/securities), Donald Bird and Pierre Côté (financing), Jeffrey Thomas (competition/Investment Canada), Christine Dubreuil Duchaine (environmental) and Andrew Loh (intellectual property).