Ironwood said it believes VectivBio’s once-weekly GLP-2 analog apraglutide is differentiated from Takeda’s once-daily Gattex in short bowel syndrome and could generate $1bn in peak sales.

While most of the cash for Swiss biotech firms comes from outside the country, around 20% is provided by Swiss entities. Scrip spoke with two of these home-grown supporters of life sciences innovation about the move from academia to industry and their respective investment strategies.

At Digestive Disease Week, Celltrion will seek to strengthen its hold on the IBD market, Ironwood hopes to expand Linzess into pediatric functional constipation, and competitors will showcase competing short bowel syndrome treatment and colorectal cancer companion diagnostics.  

The Switzerland-headquartered group believes it has a potentially best-in-class GLP-2 agonist on its hands with apraglutide, which has proved effective in a subgroup of patients that do not benefit from standard of care Gattex.