04/20/2012 -ATIN- Titan Pharmaceuticals (OBB: TTNP) a tiny, highly speculative Bulletin Board (penny) stock drug developer has announced what it says are positive results from Phase 3 clinical trials for its brand named Probuphine, which is a buprenorphine implant designed for very long term treatment of opioid dependence. Just two weeks ago, Titan announced its intention to raise $5.5M in a new stock offering.
England’s Reckitt Benckiser, which early on sponsored the pioneering research of Dr. Ed Johnson into buprenorphine, is the most successful of a growing, but still tiny relative to the huge size of drug industry, group of drug developers that are seeking to provide pharmacological treatments for a disease that until very recently had depended almost entirely on behavioral therapeutic interventions. Reckitt’s buprenorphine-based Suboxone, which has been slated to go generic, is the most successful addiction drug in history, apart from methadone, with sales last year in excess of $350M.
Alkermes is another member of this growing drug company group, but has had very limited success with