Great post tada thanks. I agree with most of what you said and I particularly agree with your statement that this may not have been Hepalink’s or RVX’s first choice. I think that with the short term renewal of the loan that Eastern sent a clear message to management of “get some business done” or prepare to start paying real risk adjusted interest rates and while I would say that this is a vote of confidence in the science by Hepalink, I also suspect that it was equally as much a defensive move to protect an investment they believe in. I have always thought Eastern was in this just to be an investor and one could read their move as a vote of confidence in the scientific program and that perhaps they no longer felt the need for the downside protection they have had for the last number of years and thus could unencumber themselves from their collateral obligations, as you outlined. 

As far as raising more funds goes, as I said Friday, I think that since RVX will be debt free and it’s IP unencumbered once this deal is concluded that potential partners and regional licencees will be more willing to step up without fear of making an investment in IP which could subsequently be lost. Perhaps some more dilution may occur but personally I think a significant amount of funds could be raised through partnerships and regional licences. The potential value of the CKD program alone is huge not to mention other indications for Apabetalone and potential value of other thus far undisclosed “clinic ready” compounds. 

Lastly, I have for a long time thought that RVX and Zenith together represent a very attractive and very valuable package to a big pharma looking to get a leg up in the field of epigenetics. I find it interesting that after this latest deal closes that Hepalink owns roughly 40% of  debt free RVX while Eastern owns roughly 40% of Zenith, which has some cash, plus about 12% of RVX. Given that RVX is likely (we have no info to the contrary) more valuable than Zenith I wonder what the odds are of RVX and Zenith recombining into an epigenetics powerhouse with each of Eastern and Hepalink owning around 20%. From an investment perspective that might be a very attractive US listing. Pure speculation but to me it would make a lot of business sense to bring all the science back under one roof and to remove the business complications between the two companies. Just a thought