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BlackDoggie

04/03/19 6:11 PM

#39456 RE: Fortuno #39453

Understandable. I think another Paulson raise is absolutely on the way - all you have to do is watch the share price over the last couple of days to see that. Sells down to exactly $0.50 today, after it was below $0.50 prior to the PR's this week? There's no mystery there. Nobody has to read those tea leaves - they're punching us in the face.

As for licensing "this year"... I'll bet that's finally an adult in the room editing NP's wording. I'm more interested in the fact that they have several offers, counteroffers, leads, etc. Those things take time, and it sounds as though they've been having negotiations for at least a quarter now. I'll bet something gets done on either the diagnostic test or the HIV front relatively soon, although it may be an LOI and it could still be months til closing. And cash. Thus, the share price sits at $0.50 right now.

TNBC will happen when it happens, I'm not concerned. The data presented on Monday suggests to me that they might actually be thinking about expanding the trial. Why do only TNBC when it looks to be equally effective on HER2 as well? Do it right, incorporate both, etc. Even an accelerated approval pathway for cancer would likely come no earlier than (expected) combo approval, thus allowing the label expansion pathway anyways. So if you're not going to save SIGNIFICANT time, save the trouble of needing another trial for HER2 later. NP shouldn't have been so optimistic about when they would start the trial, in my opinion. It was thrown together at light speed to begin with. To paraphrase RP... the responsibility is not to fail the technology.
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BlackDoggie

04/03/19 6:28 PM

#39459 RE: Fortuno #39453

And to respond to your edit, I can understand the fear of failure from going it alone, but I don't consider that to be disqualifying. Nobody expects the current employees to have that expertise - they'd have to bring that on. Is there execution risk? For sure, but it could very well be worth it. Plus, the anecdotal evidence that "others have failed" doesn't bother me a bit, because every situation is unique.

Royalty rates in licensing/partnership deals are intended to capture the financial risk/reward ratio that a financially-sponsoring partner takes on in the development process. I.e. the more uncertainty there is over the future of the drug, the higher the royalty split for the BP would have to be to compensate them for the risk that their financial investment will not bear fruit. And most deals are struck early in the development process, somewhere between pre-clinical and P2. As a result, most of the royalty rates heavily favor the BP, and leave the developing company with peanuts, relatively.

It's very rare that deals occur when the developing company is already in the process of filing a BLA. You can make those odds even longer by saying that said drug is novel in it's field, had never had an SAE reported in any of it's trials, and plays in a relatively big and splashy field (HIV). I don't really think there's a comp for this out there, and I'd be willing to bet that the hold up is that BP's are trying to wring out royalty rates that they're accustomed to getting, without shouldering much of the financial burden and even less of the risk. If they're unwilling to budge, I'm all for CYDY making the play to go it alone rather than just hand BP several billion in revenue annually for the convenience of not having to build a marketing team. Those that take the risk should get the reward.

I think someone will eventually budge and give "good enough" royalty rates on HIV that CYDY will bite. Maybe 50/50. For a big HIV player trying to steal market share, it's a win/win/win. Take little risk on the drug, make money, and drink Gilead's milkshake in the process. For CYDY, the real prize is cancer. The ability to keep that revenue for itself - or just dictate terms of a commercialization deal - could end up being a financial win massive implications for company value.

Please note that this wasn't written to educate you on anything, so don't feel patronized. Just putting my thoughts on paper, so to speak.