BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Playing the primaries

How Ironwood gained a fresh primary care asset from AZ

May 2, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

When Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) set out to add to another primary care product, the biotech expected it would likely get a drug nearing the end of its revenue cycle. Instead Ironwood expects newly acquired resistant gout drug Zurampic lesinurad to provide a growing revenue stream for at least the next 12 years.

For an initial $100 million outlay, Ironwood last week gained U.S. rights to the drug from AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN). Zurampic is a selective inhibitor of solute carrier family 22 organic anion urate transporter member 12 (SLC22A12; URAT1) that is approved in combination with a xanthine oxidase inhibitor to treat hyperuricemia associated with uncontrolled gout. ...