Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (PTIE)

The world pain management market is growing at a brisk pace and any company that is ready with a compound to tap this growing market has all reasons to cheer. Having said that Pain Therapeutics, which develops drugs catering to this segment as well as oncology, has lost its sheen in the recent weeks.





The company had three investigational drug candidates in phase III clinical program as on December 31, 2006 of which two where catering to the pain management segment. The company is also engaged in a strategic alliance with King pharmaceuticals for developing abuse resistant painkillers. The company does not have any product sales and the revenue that it has been generating comes mainly from milestone payment from King pharmaceuticals and interest income.





In March of this year the company made significant progress in its metastatic melanoma division as it received approval from the government of Israel to begin human testing for the new drug in this area. The same month also saw the company licensing a new technology to treat hemophilia, a rare blood disorder.





Nevertheless, the firm was pinning its hopes on the drugs Remoxy and Oxytrex, intended for the pain management segment and which was in phase III clinical trials. The scrip was inching forward in anticipation of the trial results of these two drugs, which was expected by mid 2007. The recent news that these results may not be available until end of the year and also that the company has not started registration on a phase III study for Oxytrex has put a spanner on this and the scrip began to dip.





There is an ambiguity surrounding the Remoxy and Oxytrex development timelines and with the absence of any other sufficient news item the performance of the company scrip is expected to be muted.