AZ-004 (Staccato loxapine) is a pre-NDA candidate for the treatment of acute agitation in patients with schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder.  Management at Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA) is focused on completing the necessary non-pivotal safety and supportive work, as well as the chemical and manufacturing scale-up, on AZ-004 in preparation of the planned NDA [new drug application] filing in early 2010. Besides the preparation that is being done for the AZ-004 NDA, management is focusing on partnering opportunities for the drug. There are currently no real effective treatment options for patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with acute agitation. In most instances, anti-psychotic drugs are used with varying degrees of success. Care-givers are looking for three key attributes in a treatment options:  speed of onset, predictability of response and convenience and non-invasiveness of delivery. Injectable drugs provide rapid onset and predictability, but the invasiveness of an intramuscular injection during ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 17, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Nabors (NBR), Patterson-UTI (PTEN), Schlumberger (SLB), Baker Hughes (BHI) and Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Land Driller Gains Unsustainable

We are scratching our heads to justify the impressive recent gains made by land drillers such as Nabors (NBR) and Patterson-UTI (PTEN). We are of the view that these gains lack fundamental support and remain unsustainable.

Shares of land drillers

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In what we consider to be a fantastic transaction for both management and shareholders, Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA) announced on June 16, 2009 that it has entered into an agreement with Symphony-Allegro to require the rights to all product candidates subject to the December 2006 agreement with Symphony Capital Partners Inc. et al.The formation of Symphony-Allegro, initially funded with $50 million in capital to facilitate the development activities for AZ-002, AZ-004, and AZ-104, has been a substantial impediment to partnering discussions on these three candidates, and a significant overhang on the stock. Our May 8, 2009 report, entitled "The Symphony-Allegro Squeeze," outlined our belief that the stock would remain under pressure until this overhang was lifted.To re-acquire the full rights to these three candidates, Alexza will issue Symphony-Allegro 10 million shares of newly registered common stock, plus 5 million warrants to acquire additional shares (at ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 11, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Lloyds Banking Group plc (LYG), CBS Corporation (CBS), Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (SOMX), Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA) and NeurogesX, Inc. (NGSX).

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Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Lloyds Still Expects a Loss

Today in its first quarter trading update, Lloyds Banking Group plc (LYG, or Lloyds) announced that it still expects to post a loss for full-year 2009 (excluding an accounting gain from negative goodwill) on the back of

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Management at Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA) is focused on completing the necessary non-pivotal safety and supportive work, as well as the chemical and manufacturing scale-up on AZ-004 in preparation of the planned NDA filing in early 2010.The only clinical trial program that will run in 2009 is the recently initiated phase IIb program on AZ-104. No clinical work is being done on AZ-007 or AZ-001 at this point. Besides the preparation that is being done for the AZ-004 new drug application (NDA), management will also focus on partnering opportunities for AZ-004 and AZ-001.The company exited 2008 with $23.1 million in cash and investments. Symphony Allegros held another $17.6 million in cash. Funding operations doesn't seem to be an issue for now. Alexza probably has enough cash to fund its development programs into the second quarter of 2010.We are pleased that Alexza has retained ...