Company: Cubist Pharmaceuticals ($CBST)
Based: Lexington, MA
R&D budget: $161.4M (€117M)
Change from 2009: -7.5%
Net sales spent on R&D: 24.8%

Cubist tacked on another late-stage program last month with the buyout of Adolor Pharmaceuticals, which brings its Phase III-ready drug called ADL5945 for treating opioid-induced constipation. If you've been rooting for Cubist to beef up what had been a thin pipeline of Phase III drugs, you liked the deal for Exton, PA-based Adolor. On the other hand, as Needham analyst Alan Carr pointed out in a note to investors, the late-stage study of ADL5945 could cost about $50 million. That could drive up Cubist's R&D spending, something that Wall Street types haven't been keen on nowadays.

Yet in a matter of months, Cubist CEO Michael Bonney and his team have doused fears about the company's lack of near-term contenders in development to follow its big-selling antibiotic Cubicin. The firm has advanced CXA-201 into Phase III for complicated urinary tract infections in recent months and now has an antibiotic against diarrhea triggered by infections, called CB-183,315, and ADL5945 poised to enter Phase III trials in 2012.

Cubist often makes analysts' short lists of bait for Big Pharma fish looking to gobble up drug companies that bring new cash flow. So don't be surprised if a larger pharma decides to feast on Cubist and spit out any of the company's R&D programs it doesn't want to digest along with the filet of the company's assets, Cubicin.