A company need not get an offer to have a discussion. If for instance Merck was interested and asked LP what it would take for you to be interested in selling the company she could answer XXX billion. They could even agree to get together again when the share price gave NWBO a market cap approaching half of XXX billions. It's not an offer, just an agreement to talk again when the time is right. I'd not be surprised if such discussions have occurred.
Likewise, I'd not be surprised at all if CRL and NWBO have reached agreements on CRL being their CDMO for certain parts of the world, but the agreement isn't triggered until certain events occur. One of those events might be the EDEN approval for commercial production in certain countries. Another might be the submission and acceptance of documents requesting approval in certain countries. I'm not saying this is the case, I'm saying I'd not be surprised if it was.
Gary