RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (fka RSPI)

[neuroinv]

A few impressions on the SHM:
1) The transition to Mark Varney as CEO has always been the underlying plan--no one forced Stoll to do anything.The fact that they announced it now makes me think that there has been no hint of failure (that doesn't necessarily mean there is a hint of success) from Germany. If Varney thought the company was about to blow up, he might have demurred.

Well, I would.

2) The mood amongst Cortex management was positive, not ebullient. I don't think they know anything for sure yet. Pierre Tran had come back from Germany, and he made a joke at some point, and if anyone has a sense from watching the patients, he would.

3) Stoll actually did make reference to the share price and believing that it's very undervalued--not that I expected anything else, but it's not as if he didnt acknowledge the current situation. His presentation was as usual, which is in the midrange for execs. There are some who are flashy but sleazy, there are some who are totally boring, he's in neither group--but you have to have interest in the data he's showing. Spoonfeeding and cheerleading is not his style. There are just a few CEOs who stand out in their presenting, Don deBethizy of Targacept is one example. But the issue here is not presenter style--put deBethizy up there presenting the same pending binary scenario, and the stock will do exactly the same thing. Varney is also very lowkey--but I'm more interested in the fact he got Street and Tran to join up.

4) Other important points: CX1739 is not delayed, it's finishing its tox work, and they clearly expect it to be in the clinic 3Q.

I asked specifically whether anything had caused a caution flag on the first high impact, CX1837. There has not been, but it's still early in the tox testing process.

There is no use patent on ADHD, which accounts for SP going ahead without a license. Stoll made a half-hearted reference to the cognition patent perhaps applying, but he more importantly indicated that there is some prior art (must be vis-a-vis attention specifically) that prevented a use patent for ADHD. So Cortex's leverage there is strictly molecule-based.

NeuroInvestment