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Ironwood, Allergan to co-promote Viberzi for IBS-D in US
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Ironwood Pharmaceuticals today announced it has entered into an agreement with Allergan to co-promote Viberzi, a recently approved drug for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome in adults, according to a press release.
The agreement to co-promote Viberzi (eluxadoline, Allergan) follows a separate agreement for the companies to co-develop and co-commercialize Linzess (linaclotide) for constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation, according to the release.
“This collaboration enables Ironwood and Allergan to work together to bring forward two innovative medicines demonstrated to improve the abdominal pain and bowel dysfunction that define IBS-C and IBS-D, two types of IBS that impact nearly 30 million adult Americans,” Bill Meury, executive vice president of commercial, North American brands for Allergan, said in the release. “Allergan and Ironwood have an established and successful partnership co-promoting Linzess in the U.S. market, and we have demonstrated the strength of our combined commercial teams in accessing and educating both gastroenterologists and primary care physicians.”
Ironwood’s clinical sales specialists currently detail Linzess and Cologuard to an estimated 25,000 health care providers, and under the terms of the agreement they will also detail Viberzi to them, the release said. Linzess will remain their first-position product, and compensation will be based on delivered call volume and performance metrics. Allergan will take responsibility for all other commercialization costs.
“The Viberzi co-promotion agreement is a natural extension of Ironwood’s focus on bringing innovative solutions to patients suffering from functional gastrointestinal disorders, and particularly disorders characterized by abdominal pain,” Tom McCourt, chief commercial officer of Ironwood, said in the release. “We believe our promotion of Viberzi will drive value for Ironwood and reinforce our market leadership position in this category. The co-promote requires no additional Ironwood investment and is synergistic with our existing commercial efforts for Linzess and Cologuard, further strengthening our commercial capabilities as we prepare to market additional gastrointestinal and primary care products.”
The co-promotion will begin when Viberzi becomes commercially available, the release said.
Disclosures: McCourt is an employee of Ironwood, and Meury is an employee of Allergan.