Success or failure will come. A great strategist plans for both failure and success. In my opinion NW Bio needs to get themselves into the position to continue to test the merits of the DCVax platform technology. To me that is their most important objective at the moment. The Company needs to keep all cylinders moving, pushing forth on Direct. I don't mean starting Direct trials per say, but certainly get INDs and IRB ready to go in Direct + CI would go a long way. If they completely rely only one product in their pipeline, DCVax-L, without beginning the process of DCVax-Direct+CI they stand the chance to lose it all if their DC technology does not see success in GBM. For instance, let's say statistical significance falls short on Overall Suvival, and we learn about it before CI announcement, the market would complete disregard the entire platform. They would suffer a worse fate than IMUC, whose market cap that is equivalent to the cash the company has on hand - discounted as a failure, yet their Phase III is destined to see success IMO. However, if NW Bio already sets the beginning stages of DCVax-platform (L & Direct) to combine with a CI (licensing rights) then a Phase III trial failure might not kill the company entirely. The company needs to prepare for failure in case they miss on GBM. I feel lining up a CI exclusive licensing rights agreement would do that. And so, IMHO they had better complete the CI negotiations while DCVax-L Phase III results remain outstanding. They have authorization to issue shares. They can use some to negotiate a CI licensing deal so that they are not spending as much cash. Pay for licensing rights with shares that initially will feel like warrants (Short term pain). Doing that will be in the best interest for shareholders. I truly believe waiting to move ahead on Direct+CI on trials until they have DCVax-L results would be a bad idea as that would mean the beginning of the end of the company. This step needs to be formalized before results are known. I also think if they negotiate directly with a big Pharma CI (Direct) and their DCVax platform has seen failure they might be dropped like a hot potato from CI combination collaboration if the Direct trial have not begun. And we know that their Direct trials are not likely to start with the current cash position they have. And so I think they are thinking through the repercussion of DCVax-L, in terms of success and for failure. Again, they don't have much cash to start trials, licensing a CI (as opposed to partnering with big Pharma on a CI) so the Company hold the fate of their technology in their own hands in the event that Phase III study sees failure (licensing works if it sees success too) is a smart strategy. They would not be at the mercy of big Pharma to continue. Establishing a CI plan that could survive a failure in their platform is the route I think they will go. But for it to work they need to complete licensing negotiations ASAP, so that the market has something else to focus on in the event that Phase III somehow fails. My $.02.
AI
