"We're all about growth at Shire. We want to expand our hematology franchise and the acquisition of FerroKin is a key element of that," said Lawson Macartney, senior vice president at the company's emerging business unit.

He said FerroKin's iron chelator performed well in Phase II trials and has an attractive safety profile. "Those performances offer enormous opportunity for this drug," he told Dow Jones Newswires.

Macartney said the current leading drug in treating iron overload, Novartis AG's (NVS) Exjade, "is an effective therapy but it's not terribly well tolerated--it has caused some problems for patients--and so we think there's a tremendous opportunity to differentiate this molecule [FBS0701]. And this will really make a difference for patients."

Shire hopes to launch its anti-iron overload capsule as early as 2016.

FerroKin BioSciences' key employees, including its founder and chief executive, Hugh Young Rienhoff, will provide consulting services to Shire during the transition period and as the product progresses through late-stage trials, Macartney said.