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ACUR. after/hours. Acura Pharmaceuticals Announces First Quarter 2012 Financial Results
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/acura-pharmaceuticals-announces-first-quarter-201500631.html

PALATINE, IL--(Marketwire -05/01/12)- Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACUR - News), a specialty pharmaceutical company developing products intended to address medication abuse and misuse, announced today financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2012.

The Company reported a net loss of $2.3 million for the first quarter 2012 or $0.05 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.9 million or $0.06 per diluted share for the same period in 2011.

Acura Pharmaceuticals recorded no revenue in the three months ended March 31, 2012 compared to revenue of $233,000 in the same period last year. The company will begin earning royalties on sales of OXECTA® in the first quarter of 2013.

Research and development expenses associated with product candidates utilizing the company's AVERSION® and IMPEDE™ Technologies were $0.9 million in the first quarter 2012, compared to $1.1 million for the same period in 2011.

Marketing, general and administrative expenses were $1.4 million in the first quarter 2012, versus $1.9 million in the same period last year.

As of March 31, 2012, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $33.2 million and no long term debt.

"In the first quarter we were pleased that OXECTA, the first product utilizing our AVERSION technology, became commercially available from Pfizer," said Bob Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acura Pharmaceuticals. "We are making progress in our strategy to leverage Acura's proprietary technology platforms to develop products intended to address medication abuse and misuse. The abuse and misuse of opioids and other medications is a serious public health and safety issue and we believe that the products we've developed through our AVERSION and IMPEDE technology platforms can be part of the solution. Looking ahead, we remain on track to make NEXAFED available to pharmacies later this year."

Recent Highlights and Developments


The Company announced that Pfizer made OXECTA (oxycodone HCl, USP) Tablets CII commercially available on January 23, 2012. Acura is eligible to receive tiered royalties from Pfizer ranging from 5% to 25% on net sales of OXECTA commencing in February 2013.


In the first quarter, Pfizer completed enrollment in a pharmacokinetic and bioequivalence study of hydrocodone bitartrate / acetaminophen tablets utilizing Acura's AVERSION Technology.

Conference Call Information

Acura Pharmaceuticals will host a conference call tomorrow, May 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET to discuss its first quarter 2012 financial results. To participate in the live conference call, please dial 888-857-6929 (U.S. and Canada) or 719-457-2658 (international), and provide passcode 5534513. A live webcast of the call will also be available through the "Investors" section of the Company's website at www.acurapharm.com.

The conference call and the webcast will be archived for two weeks. The telephone replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after completion of the call by dialing 888-203-1112 (U.S. and Canada) or 719-457-0820 (international), and providing passcode 5534513.