NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[kabunushi]

Argos recently laid off a dozen technical staff and shut down their program to automate mfg. This was done right after they announced that their VCs were putting up another $60M required to complete the ph 3 trial along with 1-2 phase 2 trials. Prior to that their stated goal was to upgrade from a manual process to automated while their ph 3 trial was ongoing. When asked about it on a cc the CEO said that they only anticipate treating some 600 patients in their first year after approval and only up to double that in 2nd year. If NWBO has completed their automation and especially if they have already started using the latest mfg processes in the vax-l ph 3 trial then would seem to be miles ahead of Argos in how quickly they can expand the number of patients treated, assuming that both get approved. Of course if one treatment proved to be significantly more effective that might trump mfg ability but it does appear that NWBO could be able to move much faster if there is a large demand for the treatment and both treatments work to a similar degree. Of course NWBO has both vax-l and direct as possible weapons.