Ann: Positive FDA Pre-IND meeting guides IHL-42X development, page-27

Well, I'm speaking from my own limited understanding of the biochemistry... but in my view the main consideration for an acquirer is going to be the timeline. Acquiring IHL-42x in July vs acquiring it in 18 months once pivotal trial results are probably in, will make a huge difference in how much they have to spend to acquire the drug candidate. The cost and added competition for acquisition probably amounts to a more significant factor than the degree to which the product actually gets de-risked by the pivotal trial in this case.

Of course it is easy for me to say this: I'm not an exec contemplating a deal for 100s of millions of dollars.
But the sum total of knowing well the two compounds in this combination drug, the strong separate safety data, and combined efficacy data, does indeed point to excellent odds for the pivotal trials. Add that we are not competing against a standard of care, and Big Pharma is going to have extremely itchy trigger fingers.