By Bruce Japsen | Horizon Therapeutics Inc. said it will acquire Switzerland-based Nitec Pharma AG in a merger of two privately held pharmaceutical companies just beginning to sell pain management and arthritis treatments around the world.

Financial terms of the deal, finalized today, were not disclosed by the companies. The combined company, which will be named Horizon Pharma, Inc., will be led by Horizon chief executive Timothy Walbert and have its headquarters in the northwest Chicago suburb of Northbrook.

Horizon has been working on an experimental pain-relief pill that reduces the risk of stomach ulcers by combining the pain-relief drug ibuprofen with a high dose of famotidine, the active ingredient in the antacid Pepcid. The drug, known as Duexa, is currently before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could be approved within the next year.

Meanwhile, Nitec sells an oral form of the steroid drug prednisone for rheumatoid arthritis patients known as Lodotra that is sold in Europe. A future U.S. launch of Lodotra is also planned once FDA approval is granted within the next two years.   

The companies would not disclose sales figures or project possible future revenue of their products