I appreciate your thoughtful response. This surprise laying out of funds broadly thought to be needed for the development of what's left of the IPIX pipeline presents exactly this quandary: "My left gut say something fishy is going on here. My right gut says our pipeline is crap so why the hell not roll the dice on some ancillary tech with our remaining cash".
IPIX has had this short stack of cash ($8-10M) on hand for over a year and done little with it. The last 10-K (as of 6/30/21) said "We currently have an approximate $11.3 million cash balance in the bank as of the date of this filing, but that is insufficient to complete the development and commercialization of any of our proposed products. We expect to incur costs of approximately $10.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year ending June 30, 2022 to operate our business in accordance with our business plans and budgets." So management had resigned itself to the fact that, even if any of the proposed projects at the time wasn't "crap", they couldn't fund any of them to completion. Additional funding could surely have been raised albeit in a very dilutive financing effort....companies in worse shape do it every day. If as some have suggested there's a big Fox windfall in the works, that cash could be used to develop existing candidates if "management" saw them as having promise. The choice to fund Squalus then makes it clear that IPIX feels that the $4 (or $5) million is better spent there than on its own properties. There is nothing in the public domain to explain that decision. The status statement from the Squalus co-founder could have been made (and probably was) about several of IPIX's offerings over the last decade: "we are at a major inflection point with completing development of the StingRay system and beginning the process towards commercialization".
Obviously (to me) the former CPA had to have had some trusted guidance, hopefully independent guidance, in reaching his decision. Neither of the Board members seems to possess the skills needed to make that evaluation. There's a rumor that I'm reticent to repeat that there's a Business Development person on the loose at the Wakefield desk but the Company hasn't mentioned it and the PR would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. The Bird foundation grant ("Squalus and the development of the StingRay system are also supported by a grant from the BIRD Foundation ") was less than $1M over a year ago and put Squalus together with ForTec Medical, which doesn't seem to mention it on their website unless I missed it (https://www.fortecmedical.com/).
The SERIES A PREFERRED SHARE PURCHASE AGREEMENT is tough reading but it seems to suggest that there's another purchaser/purchasers and additional shares available for purchase via warrants issued to the original purchasers, including IPIX. There are redemption clauses that might be worth reading if they can be read. This is not a typical purchase of equity. It offers no liquidity and Squalus is privately held.
Both your left and right guts may be onto something....they can both be true.
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