Ardelyx Inc.’s first drug approval makes it a commercial-stage company, but the cardiorenal disease-focused firm has no intention of marketing Ibsrela on its own for constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C). It wants a commercial partner to pay significant upfront money to take over the IBS-C indication, while Ardelyx completes a Phase III program with the same molecule, tenapanor, in hyperphosphatemia.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Ibsrela – a locally acting sodium/hydrogen exchanger 3 (NHE3) inhibitor – on 12...