Thus is the quandary they face. I'm pretty sure, based on information that has been out there, they were offered a partnership for Marine but was giving away too much so they said no.
Based on the JPM note that they are MORE likely to be open to partner for Anchor my guess is they believe they are in a better position to negotiate and can get a deal that may not be ideal but will be good for the company and shareholders. However, with being unable to get a partner for Marine on favorable terms I'm sure they are unsure whether Anchor partnership can get done so will pursue third party contract sales force if they have to.
Now for pure SPECULATION:
I believe partnering discussions have only gone slightly better for Anchor than for Marine. I believe management discussed with their advisers the issues they had getting a good partnership deal and I believe that the advice from Jeffries and consultants was that they were in a weak cash position, that they might run out mid 2014 and BP would wait to strike a deal when AMRN HAD to get a deal. They would let AMRN launch, spend a ton of money launching, use a weaker third party sales force and then swoop in mid 2014 with a partnership deal AMRN had to take. I believe the raise portends AMRN's position that they really want to partner #1 but that they needed to be in a better position to negotiate from. To me it is the only thing that make sense for the timing of the money raise.
I don't think AMRN wants to wait to the last minute to partner because they would like time to plan launch with Partner. However, it is entirely possible BP will not commit until Anchor approval. The money raise does give AMRN some leverage in continued negotiations. All speculation but I can't fathom another scenario where raising the amount of money and the timing of raising makes any sense.
