Pain Therapeutics Announces 2010 Financial Results And Outlines Business Goals For 2011

REMOXY NDA: PDUFA Date in June LIKEABILITY STUDY RESULTS: APS Meeting in May MELANOMA SURVIVAL DATA: ASCO Meeting in June $91 Million in Cash, No Debt, Cash Requirements in 2011 under $5 Million

SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTIE), a biopharmaceutical company, today reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2010, provided an update on its cash position and outlined its business strategy for 2011.

Net loss for 2010 was $12.0 million, or $0.28 per share, (including a one-time, non-cash expense of $14.8 million related to our special cash distribution to shareholders), compared to net loss for 2009 of $3.5 million, or $0.08 per share. At December 31, 2010, we had $91 million of cash and no debt. We believe our cash requirements in 2011 will be under $5 million, before giving effect to the approval and commercial launch of REMOXY ^®, our lead drug candidate.

Key expectations for 2011 include the regulatory review of REMOXY and its commercial launch by King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("King"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and the release of new clinical data on certain of our drug candidates.

"I see 2011 as a landmark year for Pain Therapeutics," said Remi Barbier, Chairman, President & CEO. "We have established a reputation as a leader in drug development for breakthrough products and we think this is the year when some of our key innovations come to fruition."

About REMOXY

Our lead drug candidate, REMOXY (controlled-release oxycodone), is a strong painkiller with a unique abuse-resistant formulation designed to reduce potential risks of intentional abuse or accidental misuse. 

• King Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, is our exclusive, worldwide commercial partner for REMOXY and three other abuse-resistant prescription pain medications (except in Australia/New Zealand, where we retain commercial rights).  
• In January 2011, we announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) resubmission for REMOXY.   
• The FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of June 23, 2011.  
• An advisory committee meeting for REMOXY is not expected at this time.  
• King's funding obligations include reimbursing all of our development expenses for REMOXY and three other abuse-resistant pain medications that are in various stages of development, including hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxymorphone.  
• A Likeability Study was recently completed to evaluate the abuse potential of REMOXY in adults with histories of drug abuse. We anticipate results of this Likeability Study will be presented at the American Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, or APS, May 19-21 in Austin, Texas.  
• Pain Therapeutics retains commercial rights to REMOXY and abuse-resistant drug candidates in Australia/New Zealand. We have not yet announced a market entry strategy for these territories.

REMOXY Related Milestone Payments and Royalty

• To date, we have received from King total cash payments of $185.0 million in program fees and milestone payments in connection with the development of REMOXY and other abuse-resistant drug candidates. We are eligible to receive up to $120.0 million in additional clinical/regulatory milestone payments, including a $15 million payment upon FDA approval of REMOXY.  
• Upon the commercial launch of REMOXY, we will receive from Pfizer a running royalty equal to 20% of net sales in the U.S., except as to the first $1.0 billion in cumulative net sales, which royalty is set at 15%. Outside the U.S., the royalty rate is set at 10%.  
• In addition, we will also receive from Pfizer a supplemental royalty fee payment of 6 to 11.5% of net sales, depending on the range of total dollar sales in each year. This supplemental payment is equal to the full amount of our financial obligations to Durect Corporation (Nasdaq:DRRX), our exclusive supplier of certain excipients in REMOXY.

Science Strategy Our science strategy in 2011 is to spend carefully while keeping innovation at the top of our agenda. In general, we prefer to partner with academic groups to explore new scientific ideas, with reduced emphasis on internal discovery efforts that might create high fixed costs. Our R&D goals in 2011 will be to continue to focus on clinical stage drugs that can benefit from our core expertise in drug development, to outsource certain functions that permit the efficient deployment of our resources and to develop promising but un-partnered biotech assets. 

In 2010, we made disciplined investments in two important disease areas — hemophilia and melanoma. We own commercial rights to all of our drug candidates in hematology/oncology.