By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

CHAPEL HILL -- Pozen Inc., which has outsourced commercialization of its drugs to big pharma in the past, announced commercialization strategies on Wednesday as it prepares to chart a different course for the future.

The Chapel Hill drug company released third quarter earnings Wednesday morning.

Net income for the quarter was $6.7 million, or $0.22 per share, an improvement from third quarter 2008's net loss of $7.9 million. For the first nine months of 2009, Pozen reported a net loss of $1.1 million and revenues of $28 million, including $3.2 million in royalty revenues for Treximet from GlaxoSmithKline and a $10 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca for Vimovo.

Pozen is planning to retain sole ownership of its PA family of painkillers, which the company says is an improved version of aspirin, with benefits in cardiovascular protection and with a potential reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer and adenomas. The PA line is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials.

To prepare to commercialize and launch the PA drugs on its own, Pozen hired Johnson Johnson veteran Elizabeth Cermak in September as its executive vice president and chief commercial officer. Cermak had been the worldwide vice president of Personal Products Franchise at Johnson Johnson Healthcare Products.

Cermak expounded upon the company's plans for commercialization during the third quarter earnings call, saying that the company will use a cost-effective approach with a core team, but will outsource work and use social media and webcats to reach consumers.

"Instead of rework the big pharma model that's become big and outmoded," Cermak said, "Pozen will be able to use a 21st Century model."

Pozen expects to hire one or two people for the commercial staff in the coming year, Cermak said after the call.

The company currently has 34 employees. John Plachetka, president and CEO of Pozen, said in the next two to three years that they could grow by another 15-20 people if the PA line is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We have the potential to increase shareholder value most by using the cash generated today by Treximet and Vimovo to maintain control over our most promising candidates -- the PA franchise," Plachetka said during the earnings call.

In addition to the potential revenues generated by the PA line, by keeping the commercialization of the drugs mostly in-house, the company would also retain control of the formulation of the drug, control the pricing and be able to launch second-generation versions.

"The end of the game was always being able to control your own destiny. I always wanted to have the commercial arm of the company," Plachetka said. "Now we can afford it, so we're going to take that opportunity."

Pozen's stock closed down 46 cents at $5.67 on Wednesday.