Press Release

High schools throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania are invited to join Shire’s The Great Food Fight!, the first regional student food drive to fight hunger. The goal: to collect 25 tons of food – the equivalent of 50,000 meals – for Philabundance and the thousands of local families who rely on the food services they provide. Shire will present the school that collects the most food per student a grand prize of $10,000.

“With their unbridled energy and ‘we can do it’ mindset, teenagers can accomplish great things,” said Mike Cola, president of Shire Pharmaceuticals. “We believe that high schools in every county will step up and show how their students can put food on the table for parents struggling to feed their children, seniors who can’t make ends meet and all the hungry people Philabundance serves.”

According to Philabundance, there are 900,000 people in need of food assistance in the Delaware Valley and food donations are down 20 percent while the need is increasing.

“A regional high school food drive has never been attempted in the Northeast United States before. But we know that when area high school students get wind of The Great Food Fight!, they’re going to energize entire communities and we can’t wait to hear about their successes,” said Bill Clark, president and CEO of Philabundance.

The winning school can use the $10,000 prize for any school-approved project, event, activity or equipment.

The registration deadline for Shire’s The Great Food Fight! is August 31, 2010. High schools located in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties are eligible to participate in the collection drive which runs October 1 – October 15, 2010.

For more information visit http://www.philabundance.org/2010_thegreatfoodfight.asp.

Philabundance

Philabundance is the region’s largest hunger relief organization fighting hunger and malnutrition in the Delaware Valley. Philabundance provides a full plate of services to close to 600 member agencies in 10 counties, who serve approximately 900,000 low income residents. Philabundance provides food to approximately 65,000 people per week, at an aggregate cost of less than 30 cents per meal. In 2007, Philabundance, distributed 17 million pounds of food in the Delaware Valley. For more information about Philabundance, call 215-339-0900 or visit www.philabundance.org.

SHIRE PLC

Shire’s strategic goal is to become the leading specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), human genetic therapies (HGT) and gastrointestinal (GI) diseases as well as opportunities in other therapeutic areas to the extent they arise through acquisitions. Shire’s in-licensing, merger and acquisition efforts are focused on products in specialist markets with strong intellectual property protection and global rights. Shire believes that a carefully selected and balanced portfolio of products with strategically aligned and relatively small-scale sales forces will deliver strong results.

For further information on Shire, please visit the Company’s website: www.shire.com.

Last updated on: 27/08/2010 11:40:18