Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Joe Pantginis from Merriman Curhan & Ford. Go ahead sir.
Joe Pantginis – Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
Hi, good afternoon fellows. Thanks for hosing the call and thanks for taking my question. Congratulations on the progress. Can you hear me, okay?
John L. Higgins
Yeah you bet Joe. Thank you.
Joe Pantginis – Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
Great. Two quick questions, one on DARA and then one on Pfizer-Wyeth. Now that you have come out with the data, I know you are focusing on partnering DARA I’m just curious if you could give any visibility on the type of partnership you would be looking for now that you have this Phase IIb data in hand?
John L. Higgins
Yeah, sure you bet Joe. Thanks for the question. So, we have the data, we are encouraged by the data, we really do believe this appears to be a good medical treatment. Obviously, since we acquired Pharmacopeia, we are really going back and looking at the conversations they had prior to the acquisition. They had reached out to dozens of companies, and many of the parties were interested in the program, but were keen to see the final Phase IIb data. So, we are going back, we are reviewing the key context, where the dialog was left off. Our objective as Martin indicated, we finished the study. We are preparing a full abstract, we will have some medical publications later this spring maybe May or June. In the meantime, we will prepare our package and really reach out and reinitiate the dialogue. As far as, what sort of partnership, I think it's too early to really talk structure or expectations. One thing we are clear is that we think we have got a very robust and compelling data package. We don't plan to do any more development ourselves. We want to get out there, see if we can partner this, find a good home for it and transfer the cost and future development to a third party.
Joe Pantginis – Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
Great. And if I could just follow-up real quick on Pfizer-Wyeth. Obviously I'm not asking you to put yourself in the minds of Pfizer and Wyeth, but post-merger of those two companies, they could have potentially two drugs on the market for osteoporosis and, how do you see that sort of playing out with regard to royalties toward Ligand, because obviously, one could potentially compete against the other?
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