Signs of Movement in IBS Drug Development

Despite Big Pharma's struggles, the availability of compounds developed for other pain indications could energize start-ups' interest in irritable bowel syndrome.

It's small wonder that start-up activity and collaboration around treatments for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are as spasmodic as the condition they seek to alleviate. The disease is a conundrum, with multiple biological triggers causing opposing symptoms in patients. Only in the last 10-15 years has the medical community agreed upon symptom-based diagnostic criteria for IBS.

IBS affects 85 million people in the US and top European markets. Of those, approximately five million are now treated...

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