2 February 2012 - Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SCMP) and Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc, a subsidiary of Japan's Takeda Pharmaceuticals (TYO:4502), said on Thursday that lubiprostone achieved the primary endpoint in a Phase III clinical study for the treatment of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OBD) in patients with chronic, non-cancer pain, excluding those taking methadone.

Patients were treated with lubiprostone 24-mcg capsule or placebo capsule twice daily for a period of 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was the overall spontaneous bowel movement (SBM) response rate. Lubiprostone-treated patients showed a response rate of 26.9% (n=219) compared with 18.6% (n=220) for the patients taking placebo (p=0.035).