Mallinckrodt has agreed to buy Sucampo Pharmaceuticals for about $1.2 billion in cash, adding a treatment for constipation and experimental medicines targeting rare diseases to its portfolio.
Maryland-based Sucampo sells Amitiza, a drug for chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. It also has two drugs in late-stage clinical trials for rare diseases.
Earlier this year, Mallinckrodt agreed to pay $100 million to settle FTC charges that its Questcor Pharmaceuticals illegally raised the price of best-selling drug, Acthar, by 85,000 percent, and bought the rights to a cheaper competing drug to keep it out of the U.S. market. Months later, Mallinckrodt, which makes generic opioid painkiller oxycodone, agreed to pay $35 million to settle allegations that it did not report suspicious drug orders.
Sun Acquisition -- a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt -- will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals' common stock for $18.00 per share. The total transaction value (including anticipated payments in respect of Sucampo's debt) is approximately $1.2 billion.
Read the press release