Press Release

Shire Successfully Completes Tender Offer for New River Shares

18 Apr 2007 - BASINGSTOKE, England and PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, April 18, 2007 – Shire plc (LSE: SHP.L; NASDAQ: SHPGY; TSX: SHQ) (“Shire” or the “Company”) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Shuttle Corporation (“Shuttle”), successfully completed its tender offer for the outstanding shares of common stock of New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: NRPH) (“New River”). The offer expired, as scheduled, at 12:00 Midnight, New York City time, on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. As of the expiration of the offer, a total of approximately 35,717,806 shares of New River common stock were validly tendered and not withdrawn (not including shares delivered through notices of guaranteed delivery), representing approximately 96.4% of the outstanding shares of New River common stock. Shuttle has accepted for purchase all shares that were validly tendered during the offer.

Shire intends to complete the acquisition of New River through a short-form merger without a vote or meeting of New River’s shareholders, after which New River will immediately become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Shire. In the merger, each of the remaining shares of New River common stock (other than shares as to which appraisal rights are properly demanded under Virginia law, if any) will be converted into the right to receive the same .00 in cash per share, without interest, that was paid in the tender offer. The merger is expected to occur within the next several days and a subsequent press release will be issued at that time. Following the merger, New River’s common stock will cease to be traded on The NASDAQ Global Market.