As a reasonably new investor in AVXL I've seen a great deal of criticism of the CEO, but honestly it's nothing that I haven't seen in other biotechs, and in most cases it's been for the same reasons. In most cases it's because investors believe that once a trial end, they're entitled to in depth trial data. In reality, the company does give Top Line Data, but that's just a paragraph or two summarizing what's seen in the trial, after that, once data's been peer reviewed and presented, then they can talk about it.
Sadly, companies want the peer review to be done by organizations deemed to be highly respected, and they'll wait for them rather than finding the first conference or Journal willing to permit a presentation. I'm much more familiar with Oncological products, and there conferences like ASCO are where they want to be. I'm sure much the same applies here, though I don't really know the key conferences, or publications they're working to get into. My point is, it often takes many months, sometimes in excess of a year to get the data presented in the manner they wish it to be, and until that happens they simply would be violating proper protocol to discuss them beyond what's in that TLD statement.
When a peer reviewed presentation is made it won't be just the positives, it will be a review that has positives, negatives, questions, etc. seen in the trial, it's rare that nothing negative can be found. Peer review will cite both good and bad, that's what it's all about. Competitors, who fear approval of a competing products may have their own "experts" develop presentations that counter the good as well, money will buy almost anything, and some lessor publications or conferences will accept what's provided and consider it peer reviewed by their staff.
Finally there are the geniuses like AdamF, with his degree in PoliSci, as I remember it, that work in support of shorts to put down companies who put their spin on the results, and sadly many people do follow them, as well as the hedge funds that no doubt employ them.
In time, all of this becomes meaningless if the company applies for approval with the regulators, and gets it. When revenue builds, that's something that can't be denied, but until that happens, one minute the CEO's terrible, the next he's brilliant, it's all dependent on the current stock price.
Gary
