Comments on the AGM
posted on
Nov 08, 2019 10:55AM
I have been away from the board for awhile and I have to admit I haven't read all the posts since the AGM, there have been quite a few!! I just have a few comments.
I did make it to the AGM and although some people seemed to think Don was a little subdued, my impression was that he is someone who now knows exactly what he has, exactly what it's worth and he can hardly wait to tell the world about it.
I did have a chance to chat with Don in between the RVX and Zenith meetings. I asked him, that within the context of having missed the primary endpoint of BoM, what the the enterprise value of Resverlogix was currently. I found his reply interesting. He said he could have sold the company for $8B that day had the primary endpoint been hit but that given the miss the EV was about $4B since there is likely added time and expense to the Apabetalone program. Also interesting was that he went on to say that even getting $4B for the company would be good and that 12% of that would be great for Zenith. Just my opinion but to me he sounded like someone who is in the mood for making a deal. Speaking as a shareholder of both companies, if in the short term I would love to see that scenario play out. I also think the large shareholders would be in favour of that. HL would receive a large financial windfall and would still maintain their rights to Apabetalone for China, most other large shareholders, in particular Eastern, would receive their windfall and still maintain their positions in Zenith. JMO but I think it might just be a great thing for medicine if RVX quickly landed in the hands of a deep pocketed BP who could begin to exploit all the RVX IP without the financial constraints of a small biotech.
I also asked Don about the other clinic ready compounds. He said given what the company has learned in the last few years that those compounds would likely be re-engineered into better compounds with longer patent life.
A few posts that I read seemed to be wondering what was driving the steering committee members who asked that the embargo be extended until March. Don did clarify in the Q&A that this was around the kidney data so I am very curious about that data.
Just like everyone else here I am really looking forward to the information that will be shared with us on the 16th, the 18th and beyond!!