I tend to like the role of Devil's Advocate, and as such, I hope I'm wrong about why BP may buy us out. Don't get me wrong, we'll be very well rewarded if they do, but I just wonder about their motives for doing so.
In the past, I've seen petroleum giants buy up companies involved in energy savings that had promising new products in development. After the buyout I've yet to see any of those products reach the marketplace. In short they shut it down at a healthy profit to those who developed it, so they didn't need to compete with it.
BP likes the idea of mass produced drugs that they can sell at high prices. I really cannot say they relish the thought of more effective drugs that are personalized to make them far more effective for the individual. They could award us very well, even after data for Direct shows it works in numerous cancers, but rather than advancing the concept, they'd be buried in the corporation. Sure, they might pay $20 billion or more, but it would be easy to tell their shareholders that they prioritize their product development, and currently other drugs have greater priority because of the way they judge their potential.
I'm not saying this will happen, I certainly hope it won't, we'll be well paid regardless, however, I believe the best way of preventing it would be to keep the company independent, but partnered with a BP that could both provide funding and services to the company, but permit it to grow.
I'm very much a senior, I don't know if I'll see the day when much medicine is personalized, but I believe that by the next century that will often be the case, and when it is, treatment will be far more effective. It's hard to say if the major providers of personalized drugs will be BP, as we know it today, or if the future will consist of a great many smaller labs where blood or other body samples can be taken, and personalized drugs are made and administered in a matter of hours, or days.
If partnered, but not sold out, I believe the time to $20 may be a year or more longer than if bought out when the price was $10 or more, but while it takes longer to $20, it won't stop there, and triple digits could be just a couple years longer.
Gary
