Manatt represented Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP) in the acquisition of Sucampo AG, a Swiss-based patent-holding company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Sucampo AG Japan (SAGJ), a patent maintenance company, from the cofounders and majority shareholders of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The total purchase price is $80 million. The Manatt team was led by partner Gordon M. Bava, who represented the audit committee of Sucampo in its role as a special committee.
The acquisition enables Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to secure control and ownership of the patents and other intellectual property underlying its current and future prostone products, including Amitiza®, cobiprostone, SPI-017, and other compounds. It also eliminates future royalty and milestone payment obligations to third-party companies, and their wholly owned subsidiaries, and removes certain mandatory funding requirements for the development of early-stage compounds that would otherwise be needed to maintain rights to the promising drug candidates generated by the prostone technology platform.