Sitting in the airport after the ASM, waiting to fly home. After reading all of the posts today, my battery is low, so this may be brief.
First of all, I concur with everything that pphmbull said (he and I were talking and listening to several people together). Regarding Dr. Garnick, he was quite negative on BTD, said that it was of no use at all in getting through the FDA. So I don't believe that we have or will apply for it. He was also negative on partnerships. He said that they only slow you down because of the battles over control and how things are done.
While I'm on the subject of partnerships, I believe that Steve is still searching for a non-US partner. I base this on comments from other attendees whose conversations with management indicated that the offers for partnerships were not as good as the deal we missed out on last year, and a comment from Steve that if we get through NSCLC phIII, our value will be "astronomical" (sorry EB). If I heard him right, he was talking in the low hundred billion range. I hesitate to report this, but I think that's what I heard him say. So based on his idea of the potential value of the company down the road, I don't think that we are going to get a US offer that will meet his expectations.But a non-US partner to help fund our phIII is still a real possibility (my interpretation).
Dr. Brekken's presentation and enthusiasm in talks after the meeting were excellent. He pointed out that we need peer reviewed papers to influence the key opinion leaders (KOL's) that BP's, large investors and institutions go to for advise. And these take time, but now we are starting to get them (AACR journal article). He said that we could expect one to two a year from his lab. I asked about the preclinical work with bavi and other immuno-stimulatory drugs and he said that we should have data on those by AACR. He also let slip that "they" (I assume PPHM) are planning and already submitting paperwork for a trial with epilumumab (a CTLA-4 blocker) in melanoma. He is the one behind the "global" vs "upstream" verbage. He likes that term because bavi work on all of the stimulation points of the immune system where as PD-1 and CTLA-4 only work on one point.
While I didn't like everything that I heard, I came away generally feeling good, which surprised me after this morning's PR. It was great to see all of the other attendees again.
They are calling my flight for boarding, so this will have to do for now. More later.
Michael
