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A Westport marketer of a treatment for diabetic foot ulcers that a week ago was preparing to go public announced Tuesday it is being swallowed up by an Irish pharmaceutical giant.

Dublin-based Shire Pharmaceuticals said it will buy Advanced BioHealing to gain a strategic toehold in what it claims is a vast, potential global market for tissue regeneration. Shire is best known as the marketer of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatments Adderall and newcomer Vyvanse, among other drugs.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

But on May 11, Advanced BioHealing disclosed plans to sell shares to the public to raise $200 million to build a second production plant and fund ongoing research.

The IPO would put the firm's market capitalization at around $540 million.

Shire says Advanced BioHealing has about 400 workers spread among Westport headquarters, its research and development center in Nashville, Tenn., and a production facility in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, Calif.

Advanced BioHealing acquired a regenerative medicine business from Smith & Nephew in 2006.

Its 2010 sales of $147 million were up 72 percent from 2009. First-quarter 2011 sales of $44 million were up 47 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Shire's annual ales are about $3.4 billion.

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