I don't see why an early-stage M118 deal couldn't have been suitably back-end loaded. We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the EMINENCE study completion; it’s a travesty, IMO, for a drug as promising as M118 that addresses a very large market to lie fallow for that long.
If they license it to a company that is committed to moving it forward then there are potential inflection points that could help increase shareholder value.
Considering where it was at and the data seemed promising I would have taken say mid-teens royalty (and nothing up front) with the partner paying all development costs. Maybe the market wouldn't have liked it then but if it would have been licensed out a year+ ago the company could be talking about near term Phase 2B data.
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