Shire Partners with Nimbus Discovery to Develop Oral Therapies for Lysosomal Storage Disorders

In the first deal to emerge from its tie-up with Atlas Venture, Shire has partnered with Nimbus Discovery to develop disease-altering small molecule therapies for lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). Using its computational chemistry platform, Nimbus will profile molecules against a single disease target and will deliver a drug candidate ready to enter late preclinical studies. At this point Shire will have an exclusive option to acquire the programme. Shire already markets a portfolio of intravenously administered enzyme replacement therapies for LSDs, including Replagal® (agalsidase alpha) for Fabry disease, Vpriv® (velaglucerase alpha) for Gaucher disease and Elaprase® (idursulphase) for Hunter syndrome.