NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[antihama]

You are a little bit right and absolutely wrong regarding

Parties do not equal companies.

They equal multiple companies.
Per the PR

three different sets of parties, in regard to three different combination treatments, for three different cancers in three different Phase II trials

.
So in one 'set' may include NWBO (of course that includes Cognate), UCLA, and Merck or and another party set may include NWBO, UCLA and a Bristol-Myers Squibb, etc.