Peter Greenleaf, CEO of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., asserted that his company has plenty of untapped potential at a fireside chat during the BIO CEO & Investor conference on Feb 10.

“It’s rare as a CEO that you come into an organization that has revenue, very little debt, is already public, has a platform technology, two marketed products, and hasn’t really told its story or tapped all the potential that is there,” he said.

“When I did my own diligence on the company, it was very clear that there was a lot of untapped potential in the organization. First off, they went public at one of the worst times to go public and had a very successful IPO. The company has not seen the upside of its IPO price and is extremely undervalued,” the exec added.

Greenleaf joined Sucampo in February 2014, and has been working since to turn the company around. The biotech had been trying to diversify its revenue base, realizing it was too dependent on the constipation drug Amitiza (lubiprostone), but those plans faltered when Rescula (unoprostone) failed to get off the ground after its 2012 launch.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2014, Sucampo brought in $77.7 million, up from $65.1 million the year prior. During the third quarter, Sucampo chose to stop commercializing Rescula and took a $5.6 million impairment charge to wind down activities.

“I started laying the base groundwork for a new strategy for the organization – bringing in a world class team, hired seven new executives to run the company on the science side, the regulatory side,” said Greenleaf. “We focused the company’s effort – it was a bit all over the place – and narrowed that down to a core focus on development.”

With Rescula a bust, Greenleaf is returning the company’s focus to Amitiza. Sucampo shifted all of its commercial activities to the constipation drug and is focusing on lifecycle management ([A#14131108006]).

The work around Amitiza also included signing a global licensing agreement with Japanese partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. The two extended the partnership in October, with Takeda taking responsibility for all development, regulatory and commercial activities after Sucampo satisfies a $6 million obligation ([A#28141021003]).

Sucampo long had been dissatisfied with the Japanese pharma’s promotion of the drug – Takeda was promoting Amitiza only to office-based specialty physicians and a select number of primary care physicians. Sucampo claimed that Amitiza suffered from low awareness among patients, primary-care physicians and gastroenterology specialists due to a lack of effort by Takeda. Unfortunately for Sucampo, arbitration of the matter ended in Takeda’s favor.

“We had a very strained relationship with Takeda and we’ve worked significantly to improve that, because we see our success strategically linked to theirs. We extended that partnership to a global agreement and they are committed to funding the lifecycle management,” Greenleaf told the conference.

Looking For Deals

Aside from the expansion of commercial activities, Sucampo currently has pediatric trials of Amitiza under way, as well as a liquid formulation in development. Beyond Amitiza, the biotech has four other compounds in the clinic: unoprostone isopropyl for retinitis pigmentosa, cobiprostone for oral mucositis, and two other ion-channel activators for spinal stenosis.

“Our pipeline really starts to pay off in that 2018 to 2021 timeframe, with the economics around Amitiza really paying off in that 2020-2021 time period,” he said, noting that business development is going to be required for the company to fill the gap between then and now – with a focus on post-proof-of-concept drugs.

Greenleaf isn’t ruling anything out, but doesn’t want to take on any drugs that might be too big for his firm to handle.

“We want to get more creative with deals. We’re not going to buy the next-generation antibody that is going to compete with Roche and J&J. We’re looking for disruptive technologies, reformulations, older products with targeted new indications, using our expertise in science and deal-making to bring in products that we think could work,” he commented. “We’re smart business leaders. We’re looking for roll-ups, people who have similar challenges as we do. If we have an opportunity to take two and two, put that together, and make it six, we’d do that as well.”

Sucampo’s Greenleaf Looking To Be The Turnaround Guy

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