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Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a publicly traded pharmaceutical company. It was originally called Microbia, Inc. Microbia was founded by postdocs from the lab of
Gerald Fink Gerald Ralph Fink (born July 1, 1940) is an American biologist, who was Director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT from 1990–2001. He graduated from Amherst College in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1965, having elucidated ...
at the
Whitehead Institute Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indepen ...
to commercialize approaches that had been developed in the lab to improve
industrial fermentation Industrial fermentation is the intentional use of fermentation in manufacturing products useful to humans. In addition to the mass production of fermented foods and drinks, industrial fermentation has widespread applications in chemical industry ...
of fungi, to
genetically engineer Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...
them to produce
secondary metabolite Secondary metabolites, also called specialised metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved in the norm ...
s more efficiently or to produce new ones as leads for
drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...
or as products for use in industry, and to identify
drug target A biological target is anything within a living organism to which some other entity (like an endogenous ligand (biochemistry), ligand or a drug) is directed and/or binds, resulting in a change in its behavior or function. Examples of common classes ...
s in fungi for antifungal
drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...
. In 2002 the company hired John Talley to lead their antifungal drug discovery efforts, which at the time were focused on identifying small molecules that could inhibit fungal
invasin Invasins are a class of proteins associated with the penetration of pathogens into host cells. Invasins play a role in promoting entry during the initial stage of infection. In 2007, Als3 was identified as a fungal invasion allowing ''Candida alb ...
s, along with Mark Currie who had also worked at
Searle Searle may refer to: __NOTOC__ Persons * Searle (surname) * J. Searle Dawley (1877–1949), American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor and playwright * Searle Turton (born 1979), Canadian politician Places * Serle, a comune in Lomb ...
division of
Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in th ...
with Talley, and then had gone to
Sepracor Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (former NASDAQ: ''SEPR''), known until October 12, 2010 as Sepracor, Inc. prior to its acquisition by Sumitomo Pharma of Japan, is a pharmaceutical company founded in 1984 by Timothy J. Barberich, Steve Matson, and ...
, and also Richard Bailey, who had run Monsanto's nutritional business. Currie directed the efforts that led to the discovery of
linaclotide Linaclotide, (sold under the brand name Linzess in the US and Mexico, and as Constella elsewhere) is a drug used to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic constipation with no known cause. For label updates seFDA index page ...
, which was based on an
enterotoxin An enterotoxin is a protein exotoxin released by a microorganism that targets the intestines. Enterotoxins are chromosomally encoded or plasmid encoded exotoxins that are produced and secreted from several bacterial organisms. They are heat labi ...
produced by some strains of ''
Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...
'' that cause traveler’s diarrhea. By 2004 the company had raised $99M and was preparing a Phase I trial for linaclotide. By 2006 Microbia was starting to struggle with the different challenges and expenses of
drug development Drug development is the process of bringing a new pharmaceutical drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery. It includes preclinical research on microorganisms and animals, filing for re ...
, along with its industrial fermentation business and drug discovery efforts, and made the decision to split in two, with "Microbia Precision Engineering" focused on industrial applications led by Bailey and Microbia focused on drug discovery and development.
Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage ingredients to industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business i ...
invested $7M in the Microbia spinout and took a board seat in 2006. Microbia changed its name to Ironwood in 2008 and shortened the name of the industrial business to Microbia. By 2009, Ironwood had raised a total of $281M. In early 2010 Ironwood held its IPO, which priced at $11.25 a share, below the target price of $14. Later that year it sold its interests in Microbia to
DSM DSM or dsm may refer to: Science and technology * Deep space maneuver * Design structure matrix or dependency structure matrix, a representation of a system or project * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ** DSM-5, the fifth ed ...
for an undisclosed sum. Linaclotide (Linzess in the US and Mexico, and as Constella elsewhere), a drug used to treat
irritable bowel syndrome Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a "disorder of gut-brain interaction" characterized by a group of symptoms that commonly include abdominal pain and or abdominal bloating and changes in the consistency of bowel movements. These symptoms may ...
with
constipation Constipation is a bowel dysfunction that makes bowel movements infrequent or hard to pass. The stool is often hard and dry. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloating, and feeling as if one has not completely passed the bowel movement ...
and chronic constipation with no known cause, was approved in the US and Europe in 2012. For label updates se
FDA index page for NDA 202811
/ref> Most of the marketing rights were licensed to
Allergan Allergan plc is an American, Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops, manufactures and markets brand name drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system, and gastroenterology. ...
and
Astellas is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, formed on 1 April 2005 from the merger of and . On February 5, 2020, the company announced management changes effective from April 1, 2020. Astellas is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Finan ...
. It was developing a drug called IW-9179 or recanaclotide but abandoned it in 2016. BNC210 is an anxiolytic that Ironwood licensed and performed R&D on and then abandoned. In April 2018, the
shares In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...
of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals closed up more than 10 percent on the news of
biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...
activist investor, Alex Denner joining its board.


References

{{Authority control Companies listed on the Nasdaq