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Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Limited Appoints New Head of Business Development

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 September 2008, 18:00 CDT

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) today announced the appointment of Masanori Ueda as Senior Vice President, Business Development at Sucampo Pharma, Ltd., Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, a wholly-owned subsidiary, effective September 1, 2008. Mr. Ueda will be responsible for licensing and commercialization activities in the Asia-Pacific area, including Japan. He will report to Kunihiko Soneoka, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sucampo Pharma, Ltd., as well as to Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and a member of the Sucampo Pharma, Ltd. Board of Directors.

Mr. Ueda's more than thirty-year career has encompassed many aspects of global pharmaceutical business development including: strategic planning for research and development; the planning, negotiation and contracting of in-license, out-license and joint research agreements; as well as planning the commercialization of drugs and the marketability of research and development projects. He has worked with branded and generic drugs, with small and large-molecule drugs, as well as therapeutics and vaccines.

Mr. Ueda graduated from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University. He joined Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (now Astellas Pharma Inc.) in 1973, and held several positions with increasing responsibility including Director of Super Generic Project and Associate Director of the Corporate Planning Division. In 2002 he joined R-Tech Ueno (Hercules, Nippon New Market, Code: 4753) and has served there as Corporate Auditor.

Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., said, "I am very pleased to welcome Masanori Ueda to Sucampo. We look forward to utilizing his extensive expertise to assist in the expansion in the Japan-Asia area. While he will focus primarily on the Japan-Asia markets, his broad expertise and global experience will be invaluable to the entire Sucampo organization. He has a remarkably successful track record of identifying opportunities, bringing parties together and creating frameworks for successful business arrangements. I believe that adding him to our management team will bring success to our mid and long-term strategies and the synergy of the group company."

About Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company based in Bethesda, Md., focuses on the development and commercialization of medicines based on prostones. The therapeutic potential of prostones, which are bio-lipids that occur naturally in the human body, 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 is marketing AMITIZA(R) (lubiprostone) in the U.S. for chronic idiopathic constipation in adults and to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adult women, and is developing the drug for additional gastrointestinal disorders with large potential markets. In addition, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals has a robust pipeline of compounds with the potential to target underserved diseases affecting millions of patients worldwide. Sucampo Pharmaceuticals has two wholly owned subsidiaries: Sucampo Pharma Europe, Ltd., headquartered in Oxford, UK, with a branch office in Basel, Switzerland, and Sucampo Pharma, Ltd., located in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. 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. 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 annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 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.

Source: Business Wire

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