Pharmaceuticals companies Pain Therapeutics Inc (NasdaqGM:PTIE) and King Pharmaceuticals Inc (NYSE:KG) declared on 27 August that the two companies have entered into a collaboration to develop a new abuse-resistant prescription pain medication called PTI-721.

The alliance stated that, like REMOXY (controlled-release oxycodone), PTI-721's patented formulation is specifically designed to resist common methods of prescription drug abuse or misuse.

The active pharmaceutical ingredient in PTI-721 remains undisclosed.

Pain Therapeutics declared the submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for PTI-721 and expects to announce shortly the initiation of a clinical study with this new investigational drug candidate.