Pain gives back

Pain Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE) believes payments for pain candidate Remoxy from partner Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and its existing cash give the biotech more than enough runway to move an Alzheimer's disease diagnostic to the next inflection point. The company has thus decided to return about $34 million to investors.

On Dec. 10, Pain said it would make a one-time cash distribution of $0.75 per share on or around Dec. 24 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 17...