To Fireman, et al, who I think will appreciate this:
It feels like lately we’re having the wrong conversation. The debate shouldn’t be whether Dr. Missling is doing a good job, it should be whether the A273 works.
Does anyone remember back in 2015, 2016, when people like Martin Shkreli, Jean Fonteneau, Adam Feuerstein used to attack the science? This was easy to do then because there was so little data, but these days those who do not believe Anavex will succeed are going after the company’s leadership. Again, we don’t have much of a track record for how Dr. Missling will perform — he may be the best CEO to bring the drug to market but the wrong person for the job to market it successfully. We’ll see.
My point is that whether Dr. Missling is doing a good job is not the conversation that we should be having. Let’s get back to discussing the science. I want to hear from those with knowledge why A273 will work, or won’t. There are a few posters here who continue to do that, but I miss the likes of Dadofmarcmax and others who were able to contribute to meaningful debate — not whether Dr. Missling should be tarred and feathered because he’s a few months behind reporting data.
Louis CK has a brilliant comedy bit about how everything is wonderful and nobody’s happy. He used the example of the WiFi on an airplane not working — forgetting the fact you’re in a metal tube flying 500 mph across the country when just 125 years ago the same journey meant forging the river and hoping your family won’t die of dysentery.
How many people complaining about Rett delays invested in AVXL because of Rett Syndrome? How many investors here had even heard of Rett before they invested in AVXL?
Dr. Missing is setting this up to give the best chance for success. It’s much easier to convince the FDA to approve a rare pediatric disease than to approve a novel Alzheimer’s drug. If/when A273 is approved for Rett, Anavex will be submitting its other trials with a drug that’s already been approved, and it will have the priority voucher to further accelerate the review process.
I’d rather take my time with this plan than doing “sneak peaks” or trying to rush everything through just to meet an arbitrary deadline. Going forward I’d be surprised if Dr. Missling offers any timeline at all, and I’ll bet he gets attacked for that.
Dr. Missling isn’t perfect and I’ve called his motives into question in the past — I don’t like the idea of blank check preferred shares because the downside to poison pill protection means that it’s harder for shareholders to replace the CEO should we want to down the road.
But to criticize Dr. Missling because he’s late on his estimated timeline — during a pandemic when everything came to a sudden halt — and to do so just three weeks into Q1 is absurd. Impatient traders are the only ones who want to cash out ASAP, and I’m grateful that Dr. Missling isn’t pandering to them.
Those who say they care about those suffering — we all do. How many could also say with a straight face that they’d be okay with a competitor beating AVXL to market if that’s what it took to end suffering quickly?
Sorry for the long rant — but this will be my last post here for a while, until the conversation is steered back toward the science and odds for success, because ultimately that’s the only thing that matters right now.
Best of luck and stay safe!
