re: "...whether or not they were still working together"
My impression is that since it was described as a "collaboration" that Ariana, always looking for work, made a pitch to the effect, "Pharma companies use our data mining services so that patients can be identified for certain factors that can be cherry picked to improve the chances of showing enough efficacy in a huge expensive trial to overcome reservations about all the horrendous side effects and gain approval in spite of them. See, we might find that all left handed people who were born on a Tuesday showed better results. Why not let us take a look at your data and see what we come up with."
I wouldn't be surprised if it was some kind of consignment deal wherein, minimal, if any, money changed hands, but if they found something useful, then, they would get paid accordingly. So, what have they got to lose? Sort of like a free trial offer on an investment newsletter. "and you can cancel at any time...". Or so they say (newsletters anyway).
But they probably didn't find anything special that we didn't already know, such as, really old and frail patients in the mix had a harder time coping with the rigors of being tested constantly or what not.
So, if I was Anavex, I probably would have said, "OK, thanks but I don't think we will subscribe."
Anavex, being polite, isn't going to knock them, neither is Ariana going to say much. So, no big deal.
