By Raghav Mahobe

(Reuters) – Ironwood Prescription drugs Inc stated on Monday it might purchase Swiss-based drug developer VectivBio Holding AG for $1.15 billion, including a promising therapy for digestive issues to its portfolio.

Ironwood supplied $17 per share for VectivBio, a premium of about 43% over the inventory’s final shut.

Shares of VectivBio had been at $16.21 in morning buying and selling, whereas shares of Ironwood fell 4.5% to $10.

The deal, which is predicted to shut within the second half, will assist scale back Massachusetts-based Ironwood’s reliance on bowel illness drug Linzess, which it sells with AbbVie (NYSE:).

AbbVie reported US gross sales of $250.2 million within the first quarter of Linzess.

VectivBio is creating apraglutide for a kind of quick bowel syndrome, the place the physique is unable to soak up vitamins correctly and may be life threatening.

Knowledge from a late-stage research are anticipated by the tip of the yr.

Ironwood hopes the therapy will turn into a blockbuster remedy, banking on an extended dosing interval and probably higher efficacy to assist it compete with different therapies.

“There are undoubtedly challenges with day by day injections versus a weekly injection. However I believe what’s actually going to drive it (apraglutide) is the general effectiveness of the drug,” stated Ironwood’s CEO. , Thomas McCourt, throughout a convention name.

The deal would add to its income from 2026, Ironwood added, with profitable commercialization of the remedy.

The illness has an estimated addressable inhabitants of 18,000 grownup sufferers in the US, Europe and Japan, based on the businesses.

Apraglutide belongs to a category of therapies often called GLP-2, which incorporates Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Gattex which is already accepted to deal with quick bowel syndrome and have to be injected day by day.