Shire Announces Fourth Annual Scholarship Program for Individuals with ADHD

PHILADELPHIA, October 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Shire is pleased to announce that it has launched the 2014 Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire. The scholarship program is for individuals in the United States diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) who are accepted to or will be enrolled in an undergraduate program at an accredited college, university, trade school, technical school, or vocational school.

Since the start of the program in 2011, Shire has announced 191 national scholarship award recipients and 12 employee scholarship award recipients. To see a full list of scholarship recipients, visit http://www.ShireADHDscholarship.com.

The name of the scholarship is the Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire. Shire changed the name of the scholarship in memory of Michael Yasick, a senior executive at Shire whose vision made the Shire ADHD Scholarship Program possible. Mike was inspired by the thousands of high school seniors, college students, and adults going on to higher education who suffer from ADHD and envisioned the scholarship as a way to recognize the brave individuals who work hard to overcome the challenges of this life-altering condition, and help them continue their educational pursuits. Mike put patients at the center of his leadership philosophy, an approach that earned him numerous awards and distinguished his 22-year career in pharmaceuticals, including his nine years at Shire.

The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire includes a $2,000 monetary award and offers a prepaid year of ADHD coaching services. The ADHD coaching services are provided by the Edge Foundation and are intended to assist the scholarship recipient with the transition to higher education. Fifty one-time scholarships will be awarded in June 2014. The deadline to apply is March 19, 2014. For information on eligibility requirements, the scholarship application process and more, visit http://www.ShireADHDscholarship.com.

"I am proud that Shire has renamed its ADHD Scholarship Program to honor Mike Yasick's memory. There's no better way to ensure that Mike's legacy of making a difference for people with ADHD continues than by helping these bright, young, talented people succeed in their pursuit of higher education," said Perry Sternberg, Head of Shire's Neuroscience Business Unit.

The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire also includes weekly sessions with an ADHD coach from the Edge Foundation. In addition to weekly coaching sessions, ADHD coaches offer support to students via e-mail and phone to help students meet their goals. This support may be important for students transitioning to the higher education environment because they have more free time and less adult supervision.

Robert Tudisco, Executive Director of the Edge Foundation, said, "We are grateful that Shire, through this unique program, is helping students with ADHD."

The Edge Foundation is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that offers support for students with ADHD. The Edge Foundation provides access to qualified, professional coaches for students with ADHD as part of their multimodal treatment program. For more information about the Edge Foundation, visit http://www.edgefoundation.org.

The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship by Shire is part of Shire's patient-centric approach that provides support to ADHD patients and their caregivers.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Shire enables people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.

Our strategy is to focus on developing and marketing innovative specialty medicines to meet significant unmet patient needs.

We provide treatments in Neuroscience, Rare Diseases, Gastrointestinal, Internal Medicine and Regenerative Medicine and we are developing treatments for symptomatic conditions treated by specialist physicians in other targeted therapeutic areas. http://www.shire.com

©2013 Shire US Inc., Wayne, PA 19087

For further information, please contact:

Media

Gwen Fisher ([email protected]) +1-484-595-9836
Shire Pharmaceuticals

Charlotte Zang ([email protected]) +1-410-810-8862
Benchworks

SOURCE Shire plc