Biotech Values

[10nisman]

Just because I think it sends kind of a bearish signal. If you're confident in your drug, why limit your ceiling? I think you expressed some bearishness when VRTX monetized a portion of its Telaprevir royalty stream and I totally agree with that. Clearly there's the benefit of a big chunk of cash up-front, which MNTA can put to use on the rest of its pipeline, but it also eliminates the generic Lovenox story which is such a key part of MNTA. Given that I'm confident in the future of MNTA's generic Lovenox, and I agree with you that TEVA won't be receiving approval for its own version any time soon, if ever, I'd prefer that MNTA retain its rights to generic Lovenox profits because I believe in the long run those profits will greatly outweigh any amount that can be received up front through monetization of those profits.

Bearish signal? The point of MNTA management is to maximize shareholder value and if they can obtain $20+/share today for its mLovenox revenue stream they would be foolish not too even if they have 99% certainty tLovenox will never obtain approval, IMHO. They could use the cash to pay a one-time special dividend ($6-8/sh) and use the remaining $14-16/sh on the balance sheet to develop and expand its pipeline while signing-up lucrative partnerships for M-118, FOB's, etc. IMO, it would be smart risk management by CW and team. Now if NVS is willing to pay $1 billion for mLovenox I would hope CW could negotiate selling all of MNTA for $2+ billion.

10nis