Newly Hatched Mirum To Focus On Rare Liver Disease Candidates Shelved By Shire

Drug development often takes a non-linear route, sometimes a path closer to a circle. That’s more or less the case with newly minted Mirum Pharmaceuticals, whose team of former Lumena Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Tobira Therapeutics Inc. execs is taking over a pair of Phase III-ready candidates for rare liver disorders shelved earlier this year by Shire PLC.

Shire obtained the pair of apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT) inhibitors in its $260m buyout of Lumena in 2014, but decided after a portfolio review earlier this year that it didn’t want to take either maralixibat (SHP625/LUM-001) or volixibat (SHP626/LUM-002) into Phase III. (Also see "Shire buys repurposed Pfizer/Sanofi drugs through $260m Lumena acquisition" - Scrip, 12 May, 2014