Shire’s Perry Sternberg and Phil Vickers are optimistic about recent launches and products in late stages of development in key rare disease and specialty therapeutic areas, many of which come from Baxalta and other high-profile acquisitions.

For larger organizations with interests in rare diseases, Bionest Partners believes it is necessary to maintain a separation from the rest of the company in order to keep the culture needed for successful product commercialization. Easier said than done.

Shire Pharmaceuticals is known for its acquisitive buy-late, maximize-market strategy. Flemming Ornskov, the company's new CEO, plans to continue that approach, firstly by applying it to acquisitions in ophthalmology, an area in which he has specialized. However, with many recent acquisitions yet to mature to revenue-generation, and with big indication areas for Shire like ADHD at risk from generic and branded competition, the pressure is on the new CEO – even before he officially starts work.

As the third quarter earnings season starts to trail off, investors could be forgiven for wondering what it takes anymore for the share prices of companies to go up, rather than down. Over the past two weeks, the delineation between big pharmaceutical companies and big biotechnology companies couldn't have been clearer with big biotechs like Amgen, Gilead, Celgene and Biogen reporting better than expected quarterly profits and raising guidance, whereas big pharmas like Pfizer, Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol Myers Squibb all drifted in the shadow of their respective patent expiries (scripintelligence.com, 25 October 2012).