Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[JamesGMS]

North, if what you are intimating below turns out to be correct - meaning JUNO was "the company" to which Dr. Wolchok was referring during your recent discussions - then his "depends on the company" statement and resultant delay of a Clinical Trial GO signal could quite logicially be related to the then ongoing discussions between JUNO and CELG which, however annoying for Dr. Wolchok, required the trial to be held in abeyance pending the failure or success of their discussions.

Well now - the discussions are completed - and successfully so for both parties. The result being that CELG may now be "the company" to which Dr. Wolchok will look to for his GO signal.

Recently in an article I posted the author stated that JUNO sought to be "First in Class" in the Car-T arena - and they hoped for that designation to be ultimately judged to be theirs based on their belief that their Car-T had a superior safety profile when compared to their competition. Perhaps now - with the possible addition of the PS IP, they - or now CELG - could quite reasonably have the chance to lock in that "First in Class" superiority designation.

I hope you are correct in your assertion below regarding an auction process or bidding war coming - but as CELG has just shown - they are very willing to "pay up" for what they need - and if CELG has now indeed positioned itself as "the company" - then perhaps there will be no need for the auction. Time will tell.

As excerpted in relevant part from your post:

For now, I will not belabor my previous comments as to what Dr. Jedd Wolchok and other MSKCC personnel have told me in face-to-face conversations at SITC 2016, Wistar (December 7, 2016), AACR 2017 or JHU in Baltimore (December 7, 2017).

I did respond to a GILD/KITE email I received this morning from SA in the following manner---it reflects my current thoughts as to what may transpire for all of us here. It has become somewhat more apparent to me that Dr. Wolchok would have identified JUNO as the "company" in Baltimore had I asked: "What company do you think would implement the clinical trial design that has been prepared to further the pre-clinical data and conclusions reflected in AACR poster # 1651".

Again, I caution that may not be the particular clinical trial design that Dr. Wolchok had in mind when we spoke in Q&A following his 1/7/2017 Baltimore JHU presentation:

" CELG has purchased all of JUNO.

Look carefully now @ 2017 AACR MSKCC/PPHM poster # 1651 for data showing additional safety provided by PPHM Bavituximab family MAB in pre-clinical melanoma model —- a solid tumor field any of CELG/JUNO or NVS or GILD/KITE wishes to enter, separate and apart from hematological malignancies.

Renowned melanoma KOL, MSKCC’s Dr. Jedd Wolchok, is a co-author of that poster #1651 with other members of his Ludwig Cancer Center laboratory. That poster # 1651 summary is: “PS targeting can be combined with CAR T cells to enhance anti-tumor potential,” and “promote tumor regression without off-target side effects”.

Dr. Jedd Wolchok is known to have close ties to JUNO as a member of its SAB. The safety of CAR T therapy remains a concern, as Dr. Wolchok explained at his Wistar presentation in Philadelphia in December 2016 and re-emphasized in his Baltimore JHU presentation in December 2017.

IMO, an auction process or bidding war may come to be in play to acquire or license PPHM/UTSW immuno-therapy assets among any of above companies wishing to explore further the safety provided by the Bavituximab family platform.

Last week, China's BGNE acquired $750 million in additional funds — its CEO is a UTSW Ph.D., and has close ties with UTSW, the owner of many patents relating to PS targeting to which PPHM holds an exclusive license. CELG has already licensed many of its molecules to BGNE for use in China.”

China - BGNE - that's a pretty large market : )

Watch out GILD - you don't like second place.

James