I think the negotiations could at most get to a conditional term sheet stage (here are the terms we offer contingent upon dosing limitations being raised to at least XXmg Y times per day). Which means things could move very fast after such a decision (and I expect the FDA to respond within 60 days of submission).
But I'm not predicting this. There is a lot of tox data to go through for any BP, and there are simultaneous discussions regarding the high impacts, and the list of interested companies only partially overlaps. Cortex might actually prefer to not put CX717 back on the table right now, because they do not want a BP who is negotiating for the high impacts to try to lump the two together at a big discount. If a high-impact deal is close, Stoll will also have to decide whether a Phase IIb trial would be worth the time and expense, in terms of leveraging CX717 still further. Now if a BP were to make an excellent offer for the high impacts and CX717....it wouldn't hurt to listen....
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