Mallinckrodt to buy Sucampo for $1.2 billion

Mallinckrodt has agreed to acquire Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, a Rockville, Md.-based drugmaker, for $1.2 billion. With the deal, Mallinckrodt will pick up two approved drugs: Amitiza, a treatment for various bowel diseases with 2016 sales of $456 million, and Rescula, a treatment for ocular hypertension and glaucoma with annual sales of about $9 million. Mallinckrodt CEO Mark Trudeau says the deal also bolsters the company’s rare disease drug pipeline with VTS-270, in development for Niemann-Pick disease type C1, and CPP-1X/sulindac, in development for familial adenomatous polyposis.