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Re: ILMN. First read about them in "Wired" on a plane to Vegas in 2000 right after their IPO. I bought some that fall that I've held on to. Wish I'd spent more on ILMN and less at the Blackjack Table. They sure were right to turn down Roches' offers in the 40's. Every now and then I think of selling the stock but they seem destined for ever-increasing sp as medicine is moving more towards individualized medicine. They have competition, but now have the best, most affordable mouse-trap.
I'm nibbling at some SLB, and glad to see Lippa and Margolis at the helm of poor old CORX.
Looks like money will come in dribs and drabs from private sources until they reach 1 mil. Bout half way there.
Seven percent placement fee.
High you say.
CORX is no APPL.
Glad to see capitol being raised on any terms. Better than previous management collecting fat salaries off of borrowed money.
Bow tie out pitching his little heart out, Margolis at Aurora catering to the adverturous investor and collecting fees, Greer provides research credibility in exchange for stock.
Could be a winning combo!
Re: Bow Tie. See my post #39215, Paragraph #3.
Also consider the power behind the throne: Jeff Margolis.
He gets paid when financings are arranged.
One successful Hombre.
Damn right gfp! We need to get back in the clinic and have more than one dog in the hunt. For me the real end of any hope for the old COR was the departure of Dr. Tran. One hell of a clinician (still kicking a*& at Euthymics Bioscience), and a loyal dude for not bolting after the initial ADHD debacle, and most likely being lied about it by old management. BTW if it had been Tran running the show rather than those Brits who couldn't find enough of their countrymen who weren't such CPAP swatting crybabies that the Statistical Significance of the SA trails were destroyed, or the Germans during that slow-mo-SA-trail-result-number-crunching-post-summer-in-Spain-hangover, the reception to the test results might have been a little different given his gravitas.
If we can raise enough cash to get a clinical director with half his experience, it'll be worth the pain of these private stock placements which will put the S.P. in suspended animation until they're done. If anyone can sweet talk a candidate like Tran to take the helm it's Dr. Lippa. Despite that bow tie he wears, he's got balls as big as the world!
I just hope he can find the swine who sold the 700K+ shares the day before the stock placement was announced and give him (or her) a good old-fashioned New Jersey Goodfella's face dance with his penny loafers. We can't afford the sec breathing down management's neck with a turn-around in this company so close we can taste it.
Seems like my first post about the selling volume was right, except instead of .04 to .05, it was .03 to .04. Who ever it was who blew out those 700plus K shares was just plain dumb. Is it really worth the risk of having the sec breathing down your neck to save a few grand? Ask Martha Stewart.
Student O.T.G. I think your suggestion regarding yesterday's volume may be more likely than mine in the short term, but longer term they will need to raise money placing some of these new shares created out of thin air. Since trials can't be conducted and paid for with bad checks and promises, I'm wondering to who and for what price and terms will these shares find a home.
Between now and year's end maybe more tax loss selling.
CORX closed down on roughly ten times average trading volume. If I were to guess a stock placement will be announced soon to place some of the newly minted shares at between .04 and .05 cents per share to fund on-going and possibly new trials. Amazing what less than forty grand can do to S.P. in a stock this thin.
A pretty good rundown of what's up with CORX can be found in the 10K posted by gfp.
In a nutshell new management has negotiated good deals with old creditors and former management.
They've also kept alive valuable I.P. agreements they share with various academic institutions, have funding from the NIH for trials underway, increased share count to raise additional funds through sale of stock, and generally done a good job of turning things around. Stock seems to be holding 50 day M.A. and could do well from here. Dr. Lippa has connections with Aurora Capitol, and gave a good presentation at R.R. conference. Don't know what more we can expect from a management team given the state of affairs the old management left. Watching with great curiosity as to the terms of next stock offering to raise cash.
Based on the 10K and CORX holding steady in truly terrible market conditions, I'm accumulating more CORX and think there are rewards ahead for others who do likewise.
After reading the 10K and noting the new share count (1.4 billion common, 5 million preferred) I'll have to admit I was dead wrong on the timing of a secondary. It's already in the works. Hats off to management on renewing the Univ. of Ill. dronabinol lisc. agreement. Good deal for CORX. Also thanks to Koreans for not calling in their note (did they really have a choice!), and a special thanks to Dr. Lippa for the 150K loan from the old family trust to pay the electic bills in exchange for Series G preferred stock. No problems with that deal, he deserves it for settling claims from old management for 118K. I'd offer them a warm bucket of spit.
Regarding Rodman and Renshaw. Wouldn't it be ironic if they ended up stealing CORX after all this time. It would've suited me fine if they'd stole it for a dollar a share before old management drove it to below the evil one's p.p.s. estimate.
Got my trade I put on last week. We've had some above average volume days.
If we can establish support at .80, next resistance at 1.10-1.20. With bid ask spreads
what they are, why consider selling 'til then? Too early for a secondary. A long time until
any possible bad news from trials. Patience Koreans.
As an experiment I put in a 8000 share order for CORX at .071. No takers for the past week. Looks like anyone that wants in will need to pony up to .079. Usually biotech stocks tank some after news, particularly in a grim NASDAC environment. NOT CORX. Knock, Knock, Knocking on 8 cent door!
My prediction: pretty soon we"ll be welcoming back OMBOW and JERRYDYLAN into the fold.
No mention if the funding will be sufficient in and of itself to complete trials, and crunch data, but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get S.P. traction now that some funding has been secured. However limited it might be, my hat's off to management. It's terrific p.r. at the very least, and an inducement to further private funding. We'll need the share price up considerably on positive test data before money can be raised with a stock offering, but we're headed in the right direction at long last.
Re post 39163. Dr. Lippa.
The bio presented was from 2005. To discover the fate of DOV/DOVP shareholders
please see Post 39132. That being said, aside from collecting government paychecks,
he has participated in a successful IPO, which gives him one up on Varney. Perhaps some
of the sources of funding for that IPO had the chance to cash out before the stock crashed.
If so maybe they can be depended upon for funding these trials. I would, however, feel
better if I knew the trials were funded in part by HELOCs on management's, and the B.O.D.'s private
residences. So much for wishful thinking.
In regards to Lippa's mention of Joan Rivers, and the King of Pop's demise, both illustrate how
over-medicated and over-procedured our society has become. As long as patients insist on
pain control measures that far outstrip medical necessity, and as long as patients submit to elective
procedures well into their 80's and 90's, and as long as there are medical professionals who
accommodate those whims, ampakines for R.D. rescue have a bright future.
It might as well be Lippa, and CORX who cater to, and profit from our cultural overmedication.
I am long this stock despite my misgivings, and I think many others will be as well in the not too
distant future.
I've never had doubts that ampakines have efficacy.
Unfortunately penny stock prices don't rise on lab coated backs.
It takes a Sam Waksal, or a Jordan Belfort to accomplish such feats.
I have faith not in past or current CORX management,
but I do have faith in Greed, second only to Fear.
Greed never sleeps. It just takes cat-naps.
I'm sensing it's about to reawaken on this message board.
It's about time.
Thanks for all your posts.
The short answer to your question would be the three "d's":
Debt
Dilution
Dismal Failure (Stoll/Varney with CORX and Lippa with DOV/DOVP)
That being said, impressive showing at R.R.
"A" for effort.
Nobody loses all the time.
The Dr. Lippa I know and love IPO'd his brain-child DOV in 2002 offering five million shares for $13 a share. So far so good. He re-took the reigns back in 2006 when the stock rose to about $20 per share give or take a buck, seven months later, even with Indiplon touted as their real block buster in press releases the stock melted down to around $2.30 a share. By the time Euthymics bought the carcass (then DOVP) and merged it private to hide the stink, share-holders were paid 1.3 cents per share for their blood, sweat, tears and optimistic posts you can still read on IHUB. Lippa and his team are at least as bad as Varney/Stoll, just shrouded in a cannaboid haze to confuse and confound the ignorant. If our pipeline is all that great, why not take it private? Oh yeah, then you'd have to come up with a few pennies per share to pay off the Koreans, former management, landlords, credit card companies, and lastly individual shareholders.
Two marketing avenues for a generic sleep apnea drug.
1. At the check out counter of convenance stores run by a turbaned gentleman speaking arabic through a jawbone wireless, right next to the bath salt display.
2. Couple this with a "free gift inside" promotional campaign with Cracker Jacks boxes sold at movie theaters.
If it were possible to lure Robert Stoll out of semi-retirement I'd imagine together we could command nationwide exposure with a four to six billion dollar advertising budget.
Were are those defending Varney/Stoll as victims of a bad biotech environment, and an evil FDA with all their nasty "artifact" letters. I guess new management is a victim of an overheated biotech environment with so many billions thrown around they're just lost in the shuffle, eh?
Biotech Index Soaring. CORX at three pennies.
New Management invisible except required filings:
settling with old management and creditors.
Better/Safer returns on Spanish Debt.
Still no response from Management from my 11/12/13 query. Jeff Margolis seems to have taken the same approach to investor relations that served the previous management team so well. If there's an effort to commercialize any of the compounds I suppose its best to not get investors hopes up with press releases or communiques. Any increase in share price could prevent whoever's buying from continuing accumulating shares at this price, and might likewise prevent management from weaseling out of debt run up by Varney and friends. These are the only two potentially positive rationalizations for continuing to hold out hope.
Thanks for the kind words regarding my father. Although we never held out hope a Cortex molecule might have aided him, it would have been great to have him enrolled in a trial, even if there were a 50/50 chance he'd get the placebo. His suffering would have counted for something. Although I've done well trading more main steam bio's like ILMN, PACB, ONYX, and (in the glory days) AFFX, I think I'd trade those profits for another fishing trip with Dad.
I'm hoping our new directors and board will find some way to weasel out of the 2 million dollar hole dug by previous management, dust off what patents are left, white out the FDA Letter, and convince some more Asians to give them another chance. This is still the United States after all, where all forms of redemption are available to those willing to pitch in and pitch.
I submitted this Query to Cortex New Management. Haven't heard back.
Jeff Margolis
Vice-president,
Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
126 Valley Road, Suite C
Glen Rock, New Jersey 07452
(917) 834-7206
jmargolis@cortexpharm.com
11/12/2013
Jeff,
I began investing in Cortex about a decade ago at the behest of my then stock broker, XXXXXXX, formerly of XXXXXXXXX here in XXXXX, Virginia. Although we both had experience in biotech investing, we hadn't previously considered the Neurological Pharma business as an avenue. We carried on a phone and email correspondence for many years with Dr. Stoll, and later Mark Varney. Based on their credentials and the novel action of ampakines my stock broker carved out a large position both with clients and personally. While my position was tiny, most of which I liquidated several years ago, I've held a small amount of several hundred thousand shares for no reason in particular other than in deference to my broker, whose love affair with Cortex has essentially cost him everything.
I was curious as to how your efforts in whittling down the debt run up by your predecessors might be progressing. It seems that if those issues could be put to rest, a new approach to the commercialization of ampakines might be pursued. The reason for my renewed concern about the fate of our technology is that my father lost his three year battle with Dementia on September the 11th of this year. Despite our family's medical background (Dentistry and Neurosurgery), it seemed no treatment could even slow down the progress of his decline.
Perhaps the future of this technology lies as a dietary supplement, thus avoiding the pit dug by previous managements attempts to gain FDA approval, and the non-interest of Big Pharma in our platform.
I'm sure you are exploring all options at this juncture, but would appreciate any update you might consider providing me that wouldn't alarm your legal department.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Anyone know if Varney will be at the Cowen & Company affair in San Diego on Monday?
Noticed ACAD is presenting, and stock jumped 5%. I guess in anticipation of what they
might present. Have small investment there, and I'm hopeful that they'll show some progress
with their Parkinson Drug. I need a bump after FOLD folded on me late last year.
Good point.
As per the old MDMA story, and other newer designer drugs, the FDA will either reject,
request further study, or ignore until an underground culture emerges.
After years of abuse from sources of questionable purity, and potency,
real horror stories and popular myths surface.
Law Enforcement pressure will eventually classify ampakines as Schedule One Drugs.
Game over for research and developement.
"I got in this summer and am prepared for a wipeout at any moment."
I no longer have to wait patiently for the wipeout in FOLD.
It has arrived.
Remember how we all balked at Rodman and Renshaw when they set a 40 cent per share estimate.
I recall there were those on the board who quoted Dr. Stoll as saying their lowered target was retribution for his not accepting an offer they had assembled Stoll reportedly said amounted to "theft." Others can correct me on this, but I think R. & R. also wanted to take a peek at the "FDA letter."
Although R & R may have had ulterior motives, I think most of us would have preferred whatever "theft," R & R had cooked up to the present share price.
Point is there were alarm bells sounding from R & R, the FDA, NASDAC, missed deadlines, abandoned indications, key employee departures, stock charts, etc.
To ignore all these and simply make Neuro the focus of one's ire seems misplaced. I think its also possible that by taking the time to respond to each and every negative post against him, and doing so with reference to his personal credentials (formidable ones), it only served to balkanize those who despise him and management.
Bigcats.
This time of year its important to think of those without even $50.00 to gamble on vegas or the market.
CORX isn't alone in its plight. Think of all those Allon (NPCUF) investors out there down 50% for the day. Neuro is right about this sector. It's full of wreckage.
If you are interested in Biotech look into a company that does not need cash yesterday, has a management team who has been successful in the past, and has a shot at accelerated consideration with the FDA. FOLD fits the bill, but after being burned with CORX it still scares the heck out of me to own it. I got in this summer and am prepared for a wipeout at any moment.
Even a small investment in biotech can get even smaller very quickly.
Oh yeah. I almost forgot Varney, who has evidently graduated magna cum laude from the Claude Rains "Invisible Man" School of Investor Relations.
I've always valued neuros posts, but others on this board have accused him of being a "smarty pants," and worse. Other positive posters have likewise evaporated as the market cap dried up after the fda whammy, sleep apnea yawn, departure of Tran, Street, most of the corporate officers, leaving only the Micheal J. Fox mice trembling with Parkensons in their rusty little cages.
Tone of this board is decidedly testy.
We need some positive voices to counteract
all the grumpiness from the lost souls
who bet hard on this POS.
Whatever happened to "insiders" blessed with an inbox full of Varney posts.
You know:
ombow,
whose faith in COR management festered into full fledged fury,
but who Varney always graced with gentle replies.
Jerrydylan with his close personal relationship with management,
and insightful technical analysis of each and every twist and turn of the chart.
Maybe if we had some of those ilk left on this board,
Varney might pour his heart out in torrents,
maybe even wax elegiac
on our sad, sad asses.
Value of I.P.?
Good question.
Kodak had plenty of patents, but that didn't save the shareholders.
Patents may not save H.P. if management continues to be dysfunctional, and the board allows them to remains so.
How about them RIM patents? Not worth what they once were after Apple got through demolishing their market share.
If I were to guess, I'd set the value of their I.P. at less than half their current market cap, plus attorney's fees of course.
As always best of luck to all longs, but I'm afraid that given COR's history, management, and stock chart, POWERBALL tickets have superior odds.
High and Low Impact Ampakine Patents for Sale. No reasonable offers refused. Includes Laptop owned by Mark Varney for the purpose of Press Releases and Shareholder Communications. Condition: Hardly Ever Used. Ms. Messinger's calculator used to talley income from Cortex licensing agreements. Condition: only goes up to six decimal points. Mr. Coleman's collection of boutique porn. Condition: Extensive and well worn, though some pages seem glued together. Finally, the piece de resistance: a desk owned by Dr. Stoll himself. Condition: The desk is pristine, and includes one locked drawer once rumored to contain a document from the FDA purportedly worth the entire market value of a once promising biotech company.
Pissed off shareholders, and company apologists thrown in for free.
Neurolixis and Cortex are both mirage outposts in the Taklamakan Desert of Neuro-Biotech. Varney is merely a nomad foraging in a once-lush wasteland. Investors are the wounded prey.
Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
What is there to be or do?
What's become of me or you?
Are we kind or are we true?
Sitting two and two, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I build a tower, boys, knowing it will rend
Crack upon the hour, boys, waiting for the end?
Shall I pluck a flower, boys, shall I save or spend?
All turns sour, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I send a wire, boys? Where is there to send?
All are under fire, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I turn a sire, boys? Shall I choose a friend?
The fat is in the pyre, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I make it clear, boys, for all to apprehend,
Those that will not hear, boys, waiting for the end.
Knowing it is near, boys, trying to pretend,
Sitting in cold fear, boys, waiting for the end?
Shall we send a cable, boys, accurately penned,
Knowing we are able, boys, waiting for the end,
Via the Tower of Babel, boys? Christ will not ascend.
He's hiding in the stable, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall we blow a bubble, boys, glittering to distend,
Hiding from our trouble, boys, waiting for the end?
When you build on rubble, boys, Nature will append
Double and re-double, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall we make a tale, boys, that things are sure to mend,
Playing bluff and hale, boys, waiting for the end?
It will be born stale, boys, stinking to offend,
Dying ere it fail, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall we go all wild, boys, waste and make them lend,
Playing at the child, boys, waiting for the end?
It has all been filed, boys, history has a trend,
Each of us enisled, boys, waiting for the end.
What was said by Marx, boys, what did he perpend?
No good being sparks, boys, waiting for the end.
Treason of the clerks, boys, curtains that descend,
Lights becoming darks, boys, waiting for the end.
Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
Not a chance of blend, boys, things have got to tend.
Think of those who vend, boys, think of how we wend,
Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
William Empson (A fellow Brit, though Cambridge, not Oxford)
Thanks to Neuro for debunking the pet theories of the nattering nabobs of negativism on this board. Like it or not this stock is headed higher. Will it head high enough for those who bought and held and held and held? No. For those who can recognize an inflection point in this stock's history .12 per share will seem cheap by the fall. I began buying up all I can yesterday and will continue to buy until the stock hits my old exit point of .15 per share. IMHO my goal of .20 per share can be accomplished without a deal on RD/SA, restarting ADHD, or even positive M.J. Fox data. It can and will be done with pure fluff. That's why I'm back in. I know some were pissed when I bailed at .15 to .16 and advised others do the same. By the time they finally did it was too late! I hope they don't wait for the stock to appreciate another twenty percent before they consider piling back into this pig.
The only thing I can see that would derail this stock at this point is an announcement from gfp that he's purchasing with both fists!
Varney is no Venter, or Boger, or even Waksal. A million up front is the best he could do to keep from having to hawk Pitchblende Suppositories in Lower Squatney, and for shareholders its a damn sight better than a 15-20 million share dilution at .06 to .07 cents. It seemed like a good bet to me that a blind, neutered, three-legged dog that answers to the name of "lucky" can find his feeding troth by the light of a new moon. I'm back in because I think this dog will hunt, and sniff out a way to avoid the euthanasia pen until this winter.
The one thing I know he knows for sure is he can't mount a bitch in heat if he's dead.
Thanks for the posts regarding patents. Just as a hypothetical, what concrete events would encourage you to again place a wager on CORX and the current management team?
1. Sale of R.D./S.A. for $3-$5 million?
2. ADHD Trail?
3. Michael J. Fox Mice positive pre-clinicals?
4. Share Price back in the .20's.
5. Stoll reading the complete text of the FDA letter in his boxer shorts on U Tube?
6. All of the above?