Earlier today, development-stage drugmaker Pain Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTIE) announced financial results for the first quarter with shares up over 15% for the day.

Being a development-stage company means that Pain has no recurring revenues from any marketed drugs and investors shouldn't get confused and think the $0.28 in earnings per share that occurred in the quarter is sustainable (at least in the near term).

Pain Therapeutics will still be slowly burning through its $210 million cash stockpile with guidance for a burn rate of $10 million in 2007. Most of the $22 million in revenue that caused the positive earnings this quarter came from reimbursement expenses by partner King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:KG) for the development of partnered pain drug Remoxy.

While it's too soon to make anything more than preliminary judgments on the deals, Pain doubled the size of its drug pipeline this quarter by licensing two preclinical stage compounds to treat hemophilia and cancer. Some investors (like myself) may fret the additional cash burn and the possible loss of focus on treating opioid-related pain that these compounds could mean for Pain in the future. But it is worth noting that it was this in-licensing strategy, which Pain used when it signed Remoxy from Durect (NASDAQ:DRRX), that has made the company what it is today.

Pain's nearly $400 million market cap is supported by the cash on its balance sheet and the hopes of abuse-resistant opioid Remoxy, which is in phase 3 testing. The pivotal Remoxy clinical trial has completed over 80% enrollment and the new, slightly delayed Remoxy timeline provided by Pain calls for completion of the study later this year.

The positive earnings for the quarter might not be anything to get excited about. But if the Remoxy abuse-resistant platform technology produces more positive clinical trial results later in the year, investors should have plenty of other things to cheer about.

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Fool contributor Brian Lawler owns shares of Pain Therapeutics but no other company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.