PROTALIX BIOTHERAPEUTICS, INC. (PLX)

[Spideyboy]

Very interesting,

Following on from the Investopedia page you got that from, the next line is also useful;

"A company would seek the confidential treatment order by filing a formal request, a confidential treatment request (CTR), with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."

If we also look at another investopedia page: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/confidential-treatment-order.asp

"A confidential treatment order (CTO) is an order that provides confidential treatment for certain documents and information that a company would otherwise have to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A confidential treatment order is issued by the SEC and may only be in effect for a certain period of time."

So this means that it is information that is submitted to the SEC upon which the SEC then determines if it is ok or not to keep that information secret.

As for what might be the contents, the above investopedia link and the following Bezinga link seem to agree on the following:
"The SEC names pricing terms, technical specifications and milestone payments as three examples of non-public information that are commonly granted protection under CTOs"
https://www.benzinga.com/news/16/12/8847394/why-companies-file-sec-cto-requests

And finally what is interesting is the duration of the PLX CTO, this has been granted confidentiality for the next 10 years, up until November 8, 2028.

The real question is what would they request and be granted secrecy for such a long time on the CTO? Based on the information we can look at, I would think this most likely would represent technical specifications, more than pricing or milestone events.

From the Bezinga link, the example of a previous CTO was from Intercept Pharmaceuticals which was granted in Dec 2016 and expired just 4 years later in 2020. Apparently it is common that this fuels talks of a buy-out, but I doubt this would be the case as:

A) this wasn't the case for Intercept, nor for another CTO isssued pharma company Oncosec Medical Incorporated (ONCS) from theirs issued 1 year ago (Jan 2017);

B) why would they need a decade of confidentiality if it were buy-out talks?

I also re-iterate my general doubt for a buy-out as they are 1 year away from final data and potential Accelerated Approval for 102, and have stated they believe they already have the cash to get there (all going smoothly of course).

Presently I would understand this to be either the technical specification secrecy or something else that they wouldn't want the competition understand/getting their hands-on until legally may be required to do so.

Also I see this as good news, as if this were potentially bad news for shareholders I can't see how the SEC would have decided that that would be ok to keep secret from shareholders, when the SEC's purpose is to keep companies' behaviour in compliance.

Anyone else's thoughts?