Corporalagarn, I understand your Friday call prediction, "they say nothing of consequence" as being a best outcome, but it does sell short the prospects of pending trial results delivering "something of consequence". Anticipated timing for trial results doesn't align with Friday.
Regarding the HCV dynamic, their observed relapse of HCV in eight of nine patients is remarkable because it changes the directional path to HCV treatment improvement success. Gilead can engage another trial where they dose for an extended period of time with their new drug in combo with Ribavirin or attach a regimine of treatment where dosing with peginterferon plus ribavirin continues after their new drug gives a boost to initial treatment results, hoping that these measures prevent the observed HCV relapse. My first pass of review on this was that Bavi was put in the same boat after the reported HCV trail results showed that Bavi wasn't demonstrating equivalent viral response as the peginterferon component. That is, prolonged dosing with Bavi or use in combo with peginterferon and ribavirin might demonstrate some benefit. However, a closer second look shows how the Gilead reported result is different from the Bavi story because Gilead was reporting that patients that had no detectable virus at the end of treatment with the Gilead product in combo with Ribavirin had recurrence of HCV in the weeks following cessation of treatment. Since PPHM's study endpoint doesn't delve into an equivalent follow on "feedback" period, it is not known how patients that showed a two log reduction in viral count using Bavi or pegylated interferon in combination Ribavirin would fare in the weeks following cessation of treatment. Gilead's report eight of nine relapse rate is a sobering result.
As you can pick up from these points, there is no embarrassment in picking up the HCV topic here while the meds that have been touted as taking the lead for current HCV treatment are floundering or exerting side effects so severe that patients have to prematurely halt treatment before achieving an HCV "cure" (SVR).
From a big picture perspective, I see that PPHM needs to deliver the results of the multiple trials that have been discussed on this board before long investors can expect the "PPHM investment picture" to come into focus. Trading over the last two months has shown that institutions and private investors have picked up a large number of shares beyond what would have been expected to be needed for mechanisms such as fund rebalancing. Whether those shares came from PPHM at the market financing, from buying of shares from the market or both is a story we keep needing to figure out using reported statistics that are weeks or months obsolete, but we can observe that retail investors like us are becoming a smaller percentage of PPHM ownership.
Perhaps, the Friday call will give investors a snap shot of where PPHM stands with the institutional investor share count, cash on hand and total oustanding shares? That can provide discussion entertainment on this board while we await trial results that are not expected until April or later. It can also give more insight as to where ownership of PPHM shares is shifting. While retail investors are distracted by the long wait and showmanship involved with shares being exchanged into institutional hands at around a buck pps, there is that "man behind the curtain" doing the orchestration that retail invstors are hoped to ignore.
Best wishes and IMO.
KT
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