Titan Pharmaceuticals (TTP)

Titan Pharmaceuticals is a risky play, as most developmental biotech or pharmaceutical companies are, but this is one of my favorites, as I’ve been in and out of it for years. Titan has five drug candidates in various Phases of clinical trials, the most advanced being Iloperidone, a schizophrenia drug licensed to Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA). The other drugs in trials are Probuphine (Phase III), Spheramine (Phase II), DITPA (Phase II) and Gallium Maltolate (pre-clinical).

The company has a ‘checkered past’ and some shady trading by management in 2001 helped drop the stock from a high of about $60 to it’s current share price of about $1.70. In the last couple of years the stock has traded up and down from the range it’s in now up to about five bucks, providing many opportunities to get in and out.

In March of 2006 I made the dumb mistake of not selling quick enough when it hit $4.99, thinking there just may be really good news coming. I ended up riding it back down to around 2. I reloaded and recovered that one by stocking up on TTP and VNDA and awaited Phase III results for Iloperidone, due out at the end of 2006. I’d read up quite a bit on the long history of Iloperidone, and even though it can be considered as a me-too drug, it had a nice safety profile and I thought the stock price of both companies (TTP and VNDA) would shoot up on positive results, giving me a selling opportunity. Luckily enough that’s what happened.
Since I’m a small investor, I was happy to take the profits and pay off a credit card and invest the leftovers in some other stuff, part of which I speculated in DNDN call options that paid my trip to the Dominican Republic last year. After all them months of having the wife yell at me for being on the computer, she shut-up when she started seeing the results of my DD.

Back to TTP. Probuphine results should be announced later this year along with Spheramine Phase II results in the same time frame. Spheramine is the one I like. It’s a drug to treat Parkinsons and is partnered with Bayer Schering Pharma AG. Updates on this drug usually bump the share price, and the upcoming Phase II results may give the share price a permanent boost.

DITPA and Gallium updates may come this year, but I believe the big three to look at with Titan are the aforementioned three.

I continue to hold a fair amount of TTP in my speculative portfolio. I like the fact that they have numerous drugs in the pipeline, not a one-drug wonder, and the new management looks to be doing a better job at getting information out. At the current price I think the risk-reward is favorable, especially if you sell on the spikes.

VFC still likes TTP.