Frog,
You said:
It's doubtful that a company with any concept of fiscal responsibility would squander a potentially valuable option on the possibility that a patent 'might' be awarded in a few YEARS. So even if they liked the concepts in the patent application and coveted the technology therein, why would they allow their option 'window' to commence on such a tenuous promise? Why wouldn't they demand the actual patent award to start the clock?
Excellent anology for why no large pharma, small pharma, or any pharma for that matter has come forward and offered any kind of a deal with Dnap. It all looks very promising but Orchid (or Beckman Colter) holds all the cards. Until that matter is resolved it is still just a waiting game. And we may, as you said, be waiting years. How many is anyones guess.
For now, we'll just have to settle for high profile forensics cases. Pretty exciting but far from wildly profitable.
Iom