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Mark J. Alberts, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas remarked:

"Discontinuation of aspirin therapy is often due to the adverse GI effects of aspirin. In these pivotal studies, PA32540 was associated with a significantly lower rate of treatment discontinuation than aspirin alone. Patient adherence to aspirin therapy saves lives, as aspirin discontinuation increases the likelihood of potential adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events."

In an article written by analyst Jason Napodano, he notes:

"Amazon.com sells a 500 tablet bottle of 325 mg aspirin for $11.00, or 2.2 cents per day. One can also buy 42 20 mg tablets of OTC Prilosec (omeprazole) for $23.95, or around 57 cents per pill. To re-create Pozen's PA-325/40, a patient would spend approximately $1.16 per day (taking two Prilosec pills plus an aspirin)."

The above clearly demonstrates why it would be beneficial to choose Pozen's drug over taking aspirin and Prilosec separately -- it would cost less at 1 dollar a day for a patient to buy PA32540 versus buying both drugs separately for $1.16. Additionally, PA32540 is time released and contains a dose specific solution in one pill where patients need not to worry about mixing both medications to get the desired result.

Partnership Potential:

The above referenced article goes on further to note that the PA platform might be worth as much as $400M in sales per year globally, with the company receiving at least a $30M upfront payment from any potential partner. With an NDA filing expected in April the company's desire to secure a partner before the filing, we would expect that Pozen's stock price may see an increase in the short term.

A partnership could spark the stock price, depending on the details of the transaction. Generally, it shows that the development of a drug will be expedited and the potential is going to be greater because of more power and resources behind it. Last year, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals gained 15% on a day when it announced a partnership with Royalty Pharma. Royalty Pharma agreed to pay Sunesis $25 million if the company is successful developing its lead product candidate Vosaroxin, which is an anticancer quinolone derivative class of compounds that have never used to attempt to treat cancer. In the time since, Sunesis has seen a stock price increase of well over 100% from $2.87 to $6.18.