Verispan Recognizes Sucampo Pharmaceuticals As a Top 20 Pharmaceutical Company in Promoting to the U.S. Nursing Home Market
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCMP), an emerging pharmaceutical company developing prostone-based therapies for age-related and other diseases, today announced that a spring 2007 survey of U.S. nursing home pharmacy providers by Verispan ranks Sucampo Pharmaceuticals as a top 20 pharmaceutical company in a number of categories relating to promotional activities.
Verispan’s Nursing Home Provider/Consultant Promotional Audit tracks the promotional activities of pharmaceutical companies to pharmacists who service nursing homes. In addition, the audit measures company image and performance. The spring 2007 report surveyed 76 long-term care pharmacy providers/consultants who service more than 508,000 nursing home beds and more than 72,000 assisted living beds.
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals ranked 11th among pharmaceutical companies that best satisfy pharmacists’ needs for value-added services and 13th among all companies in terms of the frequency of pharmacy contacts.
“The ranking of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals in the long-term care marketplace, alongside global pharmaceutical companies, is a great accomplishment for our sales force,” said Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., the Company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer. “The fact that our sales force has reached this achievement in such a short time highlights the successful implementation of our business model targeting diseases associated with an aging population within the long-term care and institutional segments.”
About Verispan
Verispan, a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp., provides a broad array of information products and services to the healthcare industry, including sales targeting and compensation products; market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care offerings; data integration, warehousing and mining; data analysis and consulting; direct mail; list services; disease management studies; clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol recruitment evaluation; healthcare outcomes; and cost/benefit analyses, among many others. Verispan is also the nation’s leading provider of patient-centric longitudinal data, with dozens of products used by clients spanning the industry. Headquartered in Yardley, Pa., Verispan employs over 500 dedicated healthcare information professionals. The company’s Web site is www.verispan.com.
About Sucampo Pharmaceuticals
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an emerging pharmaceutical company based in Bethesda, MD, focuses on the development and commercialization of drugs based on prostones, a class of compounds derived from functional fatty acids that occur naturally in the human body. The therapeutic potential of prostones 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 advisor, international business development. Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ first product, AMITIZA® (lubiprostone), received marketing approval from the FDA in January 2006. To learn more about Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and its products, visit www.sucampo.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Sucampo Pharmaceuticals are forward-looking statements made under the provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the words “project,”"believe,”"anticipate,”"plan,”"expect,”"estimate,”"intend,”"should,”"would,”"could,”"will,”"may” or other similar expressions. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors described in Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2007, the final prospectus relating to Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ initial public offering and other periodic reports filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements in this press release represent Sucampo Pharmaceuticals’ views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Sucampo Pharmaceuticals anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its views to change. However, while Sucampo Pharmaceuticals may elect to update these forward-looking statements publicly at some point in the future, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.