This speaks volumes, you should be able to find most answers you seek.
from Raging bull...
By: thaliomiles
22 Oct 2002, 09:03 PM EDT Msg. 97295 of 97320
Just back from meeting and tour -
Okay, in no particular order, here are my notes from the shareholder's meeting and from questions I asked Ed Legere and Steven King before and after the meeting.
Peregrine is contracting with three more companies for the creation of a fully human anti-PS mab. Xenerex is still working on it as well.
When asked about his investment history and current position with PPHM and about whether he had any holdings through off-shore accounts, Mr. Swartz answered -
"I have no offshore accounts... I have never sold a share of Peregrine stock."
Swartz is in negotiations to invest the $ 500,000.00 with Peregrine through some other arrangement now that the measure failed to get 50% stockholder approval. (those who did vote their stock voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving the sale of stock to Swartz, but all those who left it to their brokers to vote technically registered as a "no" vote.)
The "no" vote on the authority to sell additional stock without going to the stockholders has no effect on the current business plan, or on the recent financing deal that has already closed.
Ed reiterated Peregrine's goal of never going back to the equity markets again. He pointed out that his personal stock position in the company has over the last ten years gone down from 22% to 6% because of dilution.
Peregrine is continuing to focus on manufacturing and licensing to as the keys to avoiding going back to the equity markets.
Ed is still confident Peregrine will get what it needs from the FDA for Cotara PIII. He added that there were no guarantees, however, and that if FDA tried to saddle Peregrine with a protocol it could not succeed with, the company certainly wouldn't go ahead with trials.
P1 trials at Stanford (didn't say or I didn't catch for what indication and compound) were on track and should be completed by Q1 or 2 next year.
Peregrine is getting out of the late stage trials business. The company isn't able to raise funds for PIII trials and won't try. Peregrine will enter PIII trials with partners who can cover the cost of those trials.
Peregrine is moving Oncolym into new PI and PII trials. Because Rituxan has demonstrated a successful protocol model, and proved that the market for lymphoma drugs is much larger that anyone anticipated (est. 300 million/yr originally, now est. at a billion) there is renewed interest in Oncolym. Ed stated he was confident he would find a partner for Oncolym.
VEA - there is interest from a large pharma in partnering. There are a number of ways to license VEA. VEA increases the efficacy of mab-based drugs as well as chemo. Biotech companies as well as larger pharmas will be potential customers.
Peregrine will likely do its own early stage trials for the anti-PS mab when it's ready.
Epstein and Thorpe are both focusing on bringing other companies compounds into their labs, using them in conjunction with VTA, VEA, and TNT technologies to show proof of concept to these outside companies. This in order to win licensing and partnering deals.
THIS IS A BIG DEAL - Peregrine's patents on VTA are process patents. Any targeting antibody conjugated with any effector molecule for the purpose of destroying or blocking tumor neo-vasculature is covered by the company's patents. I asked Ed about other companies developing VTA technology. He told me there were about twenty-five out there and that they've all been contacted and informed that they will eventually need to license through Peregrine.
Peregrine is moving away from radio-labled mabs to other conjugates (cytokines, chemokines) Papers will be coming out soon on this work.
When asked if he still plans on exercising his 10, 20 and 30 dollar stock options, Ed responded unequivocally - yes. He also said that in all his time with the company, "I have never felt better about where we're at."
At another point in the meeting Ed stated, "One or two of our technologies are going to hit it out of the park."
Steven King mentioned during some questions about China that Medipharm has broken ground on a manufacturing plant.
When asked about eventual SDA approval in China, Ed stated, "I would be shocked if they didn't eventually get approval." Ed stated that the Chinese regulatory agencies already had the data from the studies that closes quite some time ago.
When I asked Ed about Yang Rong's role in eventual manufacture, he told me how he saw it. Mr. Yang's role has never been hands on, and Medipharm has been operating under it's own power from the beginning. Ed also said that any Chinese politico who tried to squash a cure for lung cancer for political reasons (some enmity toward Yang, for instance) would be committing political suicide.
A man named Peter spoke about his friend with brain cancer who last February was given 30 days to live. The man got two doses of Cotara. 90 days later he was back at work. He had a CAT scan in June that showed the tumor was gone. Sadly, the cancer later reappeared and he could not be given another treatment (apparently for regulatory related reasons) and he passed away. Peter said the man was grateful for getting an additional six months of life during which he got his affairs in order and said his good-bye's.
Regarding possible de-listing - Ed reported that having a 50 million dollar market cap would either give us more time or take care of the problem (sorry, I wasn't sure which). Ed also stated that if Peregrine just continues to execute its current business plan and reach its milestones the stock price would recover anyway.
Regarding Avid - existing clients are already negotiating for more runs.
No one has ever come to Avid, checked them out, and then gone somewhere else.
Potential revenue from existing capacity - 12 million/yr
+ two 500 liter reactors - 30 million/yr
+ new production suites - 72 million/yr
Work is underway to fit the facilities for two 500 liter reactors. The reactors themselves will not be purchased until contracts require them.
Mabufacturing gross profit margin - 50-70%
Avid expects business even in these tough times for two reasons. Big pharmas have the money. Developmental biotechs have no choice. They're burning money and they need mabs for trials, and trials are all they're doing. They don't buy mabs - they're out of business.
Steven King is still talking about Medipharm being an eventual Avid client.
The employees at Avid when I took the tour today looked busy - for what that's work. Steve says typically there are employees there from six in the morning until midnight, and also on weekends. Avid is expanding its space, taking over more of the building it's in. Peregrine is expanding into the other half of the top floor of its building as well.
That pretty much covers my notes. Ask any questions you like - there may be more info stuck in the cracks in my skull. |
