CO,
I thought it was a great game too. Army fought hard and almost broke the spell.
Regarding the big companies and how they play the games to protect their bottom lines; I know it happens (just have to listen to the news) and its all about the money. I like to believe the doctors are mostly in it to help people and I know they are trapped in this process which requires everyone to be associated with an entity that has the resources (money, marketing clout, political connections, etc...)to get their work produced, tested, approved and distributed to the people who need it.
Our company is in that same boat. I believe that we truly need a deep pocket partner to get anywhere with our pipeline. I've never understood why people think that Roche is the perfect fit especially after they spent all the mega-money on Genentech. They have so much sunk cost into the APPOVED Avastin platform that I never thought it was in their best interest to see that Bavi was brought to market in an expeditious manner. It always seemed to me that Roche would want to at least control Bavi, not necessary develop it, until there was an overriding need to have it replace Avastin. Its going to be a number of years yet before Avastin goes off patent protection and I'm sure Roche doesn't want to replace their number 1 VERY EXPENSIVELY obtained product until they've milked it for all its worth. If Bavi works as well as it has been proving to during the different trials and if we get the outstanding MOS numbers for Pancreatic and NSLC then I believe Bavi threatens Avastin's market share and Roches bottom line BIGTIME. I don't think Roche can afford Bavi outright (I think they are in way too deep with the Genentech deal) and I also don't think they can afford not to at least control how and when Bavi comes to market.
For awhile now I've been seeing Roche, via Genentech connections, as being a Fox in our hen house. I know that a lot of people here think Roche is the logical choice as our deep pockets partner and my position is heresy but its how I see the situation. Your story about Lily and AMLN prompted me to put my opinion in writing. Steve K and Eric S better be on their toes regarding Foxes. I also hope we don't have a Fox on our small little BOD.
