Sucampo
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP) today announced that Dipak
Panigrahi, MS, MD, has joined the company as Vice President, Medical
Affairs, a newly created position to expand our activity in this area.
He will report to Thomas J. Knapp,
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary. Dr.
Panigrahi now leads Sucampo’s global Medical Affairs efforts, including
establishing and leading our Medical Science Liaison (MSL) department
and has assumed responsibility for medical message development,
publications planning, key opinion leader development and providing
advice on clinical trial design and development.
Ryuji Ueno,
MD, PhD, PhD, Chair, CEO and CSO, said, “We welcome Dr. Panigrahi to
Sucampo and look forward to his fulfilling a primary role in our
communications with key physicians and scientific leaders across all our
therapeutic areas. The broad range of his experiences, both as a
physician in the clinic and in the pharmaceutical industry, will add
great value to the AMITIZA®
and RESCULA® brands. As a company that remains particularly
focused on scientific advancements and research, our MSL team will be a
key value driver in communicating those messages to the medical
community. Our planned launch of RESCULA®, later this year in
the US, will be one of our major events for Sucampo and will move us
closer to becoming a fully integrated pharmaceutical company that
discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes its own products.”
Dr. Panigrahi joins Sucampo from Provision Pharmaceutical Consulting, a
boutique contract pharmaceutical support firm, which he joined in March
2011. Prior to Provision, Dr. Panigrahi was Senior Vice President, R&D
and Chief Medical Officer of QLT
Inc. with overall responsibility for the planning, development,
implementation and supervision of all phases of that company’s global
research and development. Prior to joining QLT, Dr. Penigrahi was Vice
President, Glaucoma Development at Alcon
Laboratories, Inc. from July 2009 to March 2010. At Alcon, he was
responsible for planning, developing and supervising all phases of
global glaucoma pharmaceutical development. Previously, Dr. Penigrahi
had been Associate Director at Merck
& Co. Dr. Panigrahi earned a BA from John
Hopkins University, an MD and MS, in Medical Sciences, from Hahnemann
School of Medicine, interned in Internal Medicine at Mercy
Medical Center/University of Maryland and completed his training
with a residency in Ophthalmology at Georgetown-Washington
Hospital Center.
About Sucampo Pharmaceuticals
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global pharmaceutical company is
focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of
proprietary drugs based on prostones.
The therapeutic potential of prostones, which occur naturally in the
human body as a result of enzymic (15-PGDH) transformation of certain
fatty acids, was first identified by Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D.,
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Ueno
founded Sucampo Pharmaceuticals in 1996 with Sachiko Kuno,
Ph.D., founding Chief Executive Officer and currently Advisor,
International Business Development, and a member of the Board of
Directors. For more information, please visit www.sucampo.com.
RESCULA is a registered trademark of R-Tech Ueno, Ltd., and has been
licensed to Sucampo.
Sucampo Forward-Looking Statements
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 US 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
Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011, which the Company
incorporates by reference.
