The argument against that would be that Pier Pharmaceuticals was built around Carley's work, so I presume that he had some contractual agreement with them in terms of rights to that program. Thus, even though the money goes with the PI, in this case, the PI would have some responsibility to the acquirer of Pier, Cortex. The fact that he left the BOD does not necessarily mean that he walked away with the program and the grant--though it is baffling.
However, it is curious that in the original merger agreement, Cortex was to issue a S-1 regarding the contingent shares assignable to Pier before November 8. I see no evidence of such a filing, though I havent looked particularly hard.
Frankly, ever since the BOD resignations, I've assumed that the end game was upon us, and each day, half-expected to see some type of final announcement. Hasn't happened, and I haven't tried to contact the company until today; no response yet.
FWIW: Last week I was asked to go to a substantial midsize company to present a half-day workshop on licensing opportunities. I saw them as a reasonable candidate for RD, and presented the Cortex RD program amongst twenty-five or so recommendations. They expressed some vague interest in that indication, but not enough to make me think anything will come of it. What is pertinent here is this: They expressed trepidation about the whole AMPA-modulation area due to the safety issues encountered by so many companies. This Board tends to think of Ampakines in a Cortex-centric way, I do as well---but in the industry, the years Lilly put into AMPA before finally giving up, as well as the briefer forays by Pfizer, GSK, Merck/Organon, color the story much more completely. Basically--their view is: if Lilly couldnt figure it out, why would anyone think they can? Servier doesn't particularly enter into the conversation, they're an odd-duck in the pharma world.
The other interesting thing was this: One of the scientists there knew Varney from the past, and seemed to have followed the story from afar. He commented: "Mark Varney did a great job trying to advance that compound."
When this board is being barraged by its own versions of Donald Trump howling ad nauseum about birth certificates, keep in mind that their information-base is limited to their own imaginations.
NP
