He didn't miss your point at all, and he responded rather well. You have it backwards - there will be a buyout if there is a market, not the other way around. You presuppose that there is no market for the drug AND that there is no appetite for a BP buyout. However, both of those (as others have stated) are unfounded and emotional statements. Note that I didn't say that they were WRONG, just that they're unfounded by concrete information at this point. This is why people get annoyed with your comments. You make sweeping, critical statements that often can't currently be backed by publicly available information. The fact that many here agree to at least some degree with your criticisms of management and frustration with missed timelines get lost in the mix.
Most others on this board presuppose that there will be a market for the drug if and when approved due to the apparent efficacy and lack of serious side effects. This is based on the data that we've actually seen from early stage clinical studies that have been peer reviewed and presented. And yes, we're all aware of the rebounds. We can have another discussion about why we're not overly concerned (I didn't say unconcerned) about the rebounds if you would like.
If there is a market, logically there would be buyout interest at some juncture, probably around critical data from P3 trials. If there is a market for the drug, BP will not collude to keep the drug off the market by not buying. There is more than one player in the biotech market, and I'm sure that many of them would love to have a drug that drinks Gilead's milkshake in the HIV world. Someone will pay for it to either take or defend market share.
In conclusion, at a minimum, I think that you're seriously underestimating the side effects of HAART and the advantage of a less toxic therapy that is also easier to maintain with your dosing. If the drug works well in P3 trials, it will likely do well. If it doesn't do well in trials, we're all hosed. And we all know that perfectly well, just as we know perfectly well that we're currently underinformed about the status of P3 trials.