People: Burns on board at biotech

Shire, the LSE and NASDAQ-listed specialty biopharmaceutical business, has appointed experienced sector player Bill Burns as a non-executive director.

Burns, who retired from the Swiss group Roche in January and was attracted ‘by the approach that Shire takes to address specific medical needs’, has certainly earned his spurs in the pharmaceuticals space. He worked for many years at Roche, most recently as the CEO of its Pharmaceuticals division and as a member of the Roche Group corporate executive committee.

During his long stint in the sector, he has garnered much mergers and acquisitions know-how, including (during his Roche time) a significant involvement in the acquisition and privatisation of Genentech as well as leading the integration of Boehringer Mannheim Therapeutics. Furthermore, he ‘played a lead role’ in the negotiations that resulted in Roche becoming a majority owner of Chugai in Japan.

His experience can only add value to the growing Shire, which focuses on problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and gastrointestinal diseases and has operations in 28 countries.