Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MNTA)

[GrthzGd]

Today's Annual Meeting in Boston

we know more than they do about MNTA’s business.

It wasn't that so much as the fact that the stockholders asked questions to elicit responses in order to learn about the company, and they weren't just trying to show off their own knowledge to impress their bosses, as often appears to be the analysts' motivation.

As a questioner said today, there's been speculation for months about why MNTA and TEVA "agreed" to a Feb. 13th trial date. Wheeler replied that the date been dictated entirely by the trial court's own scheduling. Wheeler said he would have preferred an earlier date due to his confidence that a trial will present an opportunity for an clear win that will afford good publicity for the strength of MNTA's process. An analyst probably would not have asked such a question for fear of appearing ignorant.

I asked him whether he had any further generics in mind to pursue, and he said no, because he wanted to concentrate on gaining approval for new drugs, and on building FOB partnerships. Wheeler also laid out pretty well the reasons why it is still difficult to get a large pharma involved as a new drug or FOB partner. He expressed cautious optimism mixed with frustration. (Viz. his mainframe computer/personal computer analogy from the Goldman talk.) However, I do think that MNTA will feel more free to make the huge investments necessary to pursue the FOB work in house in the event that the Copaxone generic is approved because that cash flow will be more secure.

Anyway, the jist of Wheeler's approach is that he very strongly wants to attack the new drug and FOB markets, that this will be extremely expensive and time consuming, and that the cash flows from the generic are just stepping stones to those ends. It's going to be a long and bumpy ride, folks, but there's gold at the end of the journey, and I for one intend to hang on tight.