Bear,  there is nothing wrong with DM saying in the early stages of design “I cannot speculate as to time lines here because there are so many factors that may impact the trial design at these early stages of development”  or words to that effect. I agree with Narmac here. DM has a long history of over promising and under delivering and , in my opinion, there are a lot of burned investors out there that would be happy if he and the company fail. I am heavily invested, so I am not wishing him failure. 

DND