Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc (TTNP)

[Doctor Detroit]

I've spent some time pondering that one, and my guess is that they are competitive to some extent, and so the sales force will have an inherent conflict.

I think a reasonable salesperson would tend to look for the highest commission with the least amount of work. Commission is based on sales price. I assume the injectable will be a little less expensive than probuphine, but I don't know.

With probuphine, you have basically two "sales" points per annum (the two insertion procedures), with a bigger commission on each sale because the price reflects six months of drug being delivered. The sales obstacle would be in properly educating the doctor to be able to address a patients concerns about surgery and having an implant.

Cam 2038 (the depot buprenorphine injectable being developed by Braeburn) can be administered weekly or monthly. So, that's either 52 weekly sales or 12 monthly sales the salesperson must make to equal two probuphine sales. The advantage is no surgery. The disadvantage is the need to continously go back to the doctor, the size of needle required for an effective depot injection (to me, a lot scarier than an implant and needs to be injected a lot deeper than the probuphine rods) and, if addicts are being honest, the likelihood that they will just not go back for another injection (they have to go back to get the probuphine rods removed after all).

I still think probuphine is superior, but what do I know.