March 16, 2006 09:46 ET

Shire Signs Multi-year Agreement With Fast Track Systems

CONSHOHOCKEN, PA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 16, 2006 -- Fast Track Systems, Inc., a leading provider of clinical trial data and software designed to reduce the cost and improve productivity within clinical trial operations, today announced that Shire plc has selected TrialSpace™ Grants Manager® and CROCAS PBT® for its global clinical trial planning and budgeting activities.

"Shire proactively seeks solutions that can assist us in operating our clinical trials more efficiently," said Arnaud Partiot, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Research and Development. "Our internal evaluation team, led by Fred Naids, Ph.D., Senior Strategic Sourcing Director; and Chantal Sarmanoukian, Director, R&D Procurement, found that Fast Track Systems' databases and software will provide not only the industry benchmark data and software, but also the ongoing customer support necessary to help us meet our business objectives for clinical operations."

"Shire is an impressive organization and an industry leading specialty pharmaceutical company. We are very pleased to add them to our extensive list of global pharmaceutical and biotech companies that utilize our data and software to optimize their clinical trial planning, budgeting and contract negotiations," remarked Frank Cattie, Vice President of Sales, Fast Track Systems. "We look forward to supporting Shire as they pursue their global product development strategy."

About Fast Track Systems

Fast Track's products improve productivity, increase compliance, and reduce costs by solving problems associated with the operational aspects of clinical trial design and execution. TrialSpace Designer® ensures greater consistency and transparency in trial design by capturing protocol content as reusable data that can be utilized by other clinical systems and leveraged for related purposes. Grants Manager® and CROCAS® draw from over 25,000 finalized industry protocols, 240,000 negotiated investigator grants, and 4,500 CRO contracts to ensure subscribers understand the true cost and compliance consequences when negotiating clinical agreements. For further information on Fast Track Systems please visit our company website: www.Fast-Track.com.

About Shire plc

Shire's strategic goal is to become the leading specialty pharmaceutical company that focuses on meeting the needs of the specialist physician. Shire focuses its business on central nervous system (CNS), gastrointestinal (GI), general products (GP) and human genetic therapies (HGT) -- all being areas in which Shire has a commercial presence. The structure is sufficiently flexible to allow Shire to target new therapeutic areas to the extent opportunities arise through acquisitions. Shire believes that a carefully selected portfolio of products with a strategically aligned and relatively small-scale sales force will deliver strong results. Shire's focused strategy is to develop and market products for specialty physicians. This approach aims to deliver increased returns and lower risks. Shire's in-licensing and merger and acquisition efforts are focused on products in niche markets with strong intellectual property protection either in the US or Europe. For further information on Shire, please visit the Company's website: www.shire.com.