NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[biosectinvestor]

Yes, I was very familiar as invested in the space. I don’t believe threats of lawsuits had much to do with AF, but selling their product early and basically getting mostly out of the space was a big factor.

I did eventually buy some shares for a time in Mesoblast, and profited, but the product was not good. It is still licensed but the cell type and quality, ultimately it was not the best product, which is probably why it was sold to MESO. Australia was a better place and more protected place though, to operate from and the cell based companies have done better operating from there for a while.

My recollection of Osiris was not as a great success though. They sold their bone regeneration product to a company that is no longer in the field of medicines, NuVasive. And then they got Promchymal sold off to Australian firm Mesoblast after it was approved in Canada. It eventually got a preliminary approval in Japan but it is very expensive and very narrowly sold. They could not get it approved in the U.S. because the production is quite problematic. Not to be critical like AF, but selling off their products kept the focus off of them and while MESO has had some limited success, I think the advantage of selling off key products does help with that, and Australia seems to be off of his map and a more protected market for developing cell therapy products.

I did make a decent little but holding MESO for a short while, but the writing was on the wall regarding Prochymal at some point and I got out before MESO (not Osiris) got rejected in the U.S. they did try to rename the same product Ryoncil, and did a trial for COVID, but I do not think the product was not well suited for COVID and lung issues.

I believe Osiris were originally thought to have some Corning connection as well.

My view of Osiris was always that the technology was a very flawed, and when I bought MESO I had kind of forgotten my view of the product because of the Japan and Canada positives. Glad I sold when I did though.

But for Osiris, I would not make a hugely positive comparison to NWBO, Osiris doesn’t exist anymore. The drugs it developed were not super successful, and they proved to be flawed technologies. Not to be critical, of them, I just chose not to buy Osiris.

But, my impression of AF is he does not bother companies that are no longer relevant, so once they sold their only potential stem cell products, he would have no particular interest in them. And my impression of Osiris was it had older, less controversial technology that really did not threaten anyone and certainly not any big pharmaceutical companies. So Adam liked to be where the heat is, something that could change things and then he’s the critic.

So I would not really use that as a model for NWBO, they should be more like Osiris. Osiris was ultimately acquired, but not sure what the acquiring company was seeking to buy since they had sold off their viable technology to MESO, and it’s still very problematic as a commercial product.