Shire sees mid-single earnings growth in 2015

Shire , the drugs company buying rare disease specialist NPS Pharma for $5.2 billion (3 billion pounds), posted a 17 percent rise in fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, and said it expected profit to grow in the mid-single digits in 2015. The Dublin-based company, which has strong franchises in medicines for hyperactivity and rare genetic diseases, posted earnings in its preferred measure of non-GAAP EPS per American depository share of $2.63, slightly short of market expectations, on forecast-