Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Millstone]

The Biogen Anavex tie up:

Many are aware of how long these deals take to put in place. How many are aware of the non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses that are ALWAYS included. In order for Biogen to allow Anavex to put out a press release announcing the deal, Anavex would have had to push quite hard. It is not a small thing to get a 60 Billion dollar company to allow a public announcement of a deal. Which tells me two things:

1) Anavex convinced Biogen that the deal was material to Anavex and needed to be disclosed;
2) There is compelling evidence that the deal is material to Anavex, which goes beyond merely testing and then coming back to the table to negotiate further use. I'm sure Biogen isn't going to let that happen. I imagine they hammered out the next steps so that they couldn't be held hostage by Anavex if A2-73 works for their purposes in MS. Hence, materiality to our little Anavex.

I'm not arguing that shorts won't have their fun pushing up and down. I am arguing that AVXL is a different company now than it was before BIIB came in and validated AVXL's science by the technology transfer agreement.

If you have ever negotiated a NDA on behalf of or against a behemoth (I have done many for a behemoth), you know that behemoths don't just say "sure, mention my name in a press release." It is a big deal.

Millstone