BETHESDA, Md., March 25, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Sucampo) (Nasdaq: SCMP ), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the Foundation Fighting Blindness (Foundation), a national nonprofit driving sight-saving research, will honor Sucampo's Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., with the Foundation's Visionary Award, in recognition of Dr. Ueno's longstanding commitment to helping patients with eye diseases. The 12th Annual D.C. "For the Love of Sight" Visionary Awards Dinner will take place on Tuesday, April 1, at 6 p.m. Eastern, at the Ritz-Carlton - Downtown, Washington, D.C., to benefit research into preventions, treatments and cures for vision-robbing retinal diseases including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), Usher syndrome and related conditions that affect more than 10 million Americans.
Dr. Ueno discovered unoprostone isopropyl, an ophthalmic agent currently approved for primary open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension in the United States and Japan. Based on this discovery, Sucampo's development partner, R-Tech Ueno, Ltd., is currently in a Phase 3 study in Japan of a different formulation of the ophthalmic agent for RP.
"We are pleased that the Foundation's Visionary Award recognizes Dr. Ueno's accomplishments and dedication to those suffering from generative forms of eye disease," said Peter Greenleaf, Sucampo's Chief Executive Officer. "By building on Dr. Ueno's leadership and advancements in the ophthalmic area, we will continue to strive in making quality medicines to help meet the unmet medical needs of patients around the world."
About Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company, is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs based on ion channel activators knows as prostones. Discovered by the company's scientific co-founder, Dr. Ueno, prostones are naturally occurring fatty acid metabolites with unique physiological activities. Sucampo has two marketed products – AMITIZA ® and RESCULA ® – and a pipeline of prostone-based product candidates in clinical development. A global company, Sucampo is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and has operations in Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. For more information, please visit www.sucampo.com .
The Sucampo logo and the tagline, The Science of Innovation, are registered trademarks of Sucampo AG. AMITIZA is a registered trademark of Sucampo AG. RESCULA is a registered trademark of R-Tech Ueno, Ltd, and has been licensed to Sucampo AG.
Sucampo Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. The forward-looking statements may include statements regarding product development, product potential, future financial and operating results, and other statements that are not historical facts. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation; Sucampo's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; dependence on the effectiveness of Sucampo's patents and other protections for innovative products; the risk of new and changing regulation and health policies in the U.S. and internationally and the exposure to litigation and/or regulatory actions. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Sucampo undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements in this presentation should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Sucampo's business, particularly those mentioned in the risk factors and cautionary statements in Sucampo's most recent Form 8-K and 10-K, which Sucampo incorporates by reference.
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Silvia Taylor Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 1-240-223-3718
