Thank you for spelling out your opinion so clearly.
I agree it was a swindle from the beginning, although I don't think Diwan could even admit that to himself. I'm think he believes he has been fair and has sacrificed much to pursue this dream for the common shareholders. But, yes, the man is a crook, plain and simple. Perhaps he believes his own con/schtick, or perhaps he knows what an amoral person he is. This should be a binary answer for most rationale people, but in his case I think he is somewhere in between.
He has such a high opinion of himself and his ideas that he thinks investors were too dumb to properly and fairly recognize his or its value...thus, he had resort to chicanery to set fair terms of the licensing agreement after taking their money. In reality, investors were too dumb to see through his unethical scheme and walk away when he insisted on collecting the money before agreeing on terms for licensing the drugs.
He has been a disaster as a manager, compounded by being a control freak and a crook, thus unable to bring in anyone capable of bridging his shortcomings gap. I believe the idea and the science could have attracted top-notch ethical and talented management, but the incompetence, lack of ethics, and the controlling nature of Diwan in the company (and the company's structure itself) would have scared them away. Yes, the list of red flags is a mile long.
Notwithstanding, I think the FluCide and HerpeCide drugs work, however I don't know if they will ever be financially viable. I think the technology will be leapfrogged with vaccine/treatment medicine combos (a la Inovio Pharma) before making NNVC a success. Almost certainly, the company will go bankrupt or will restructure to destroy any significant remaining equity value of the common shareholders. The terms of the licensing agreement provide virtually no chance for the company to survive.
I believe Diwan could have been a billionaire, if not for his moral and ethical shortcomings. I think that was the magnitude of Diwan's dream, so I think he is not at all satisfied with the results just yet.
But admittedly, I don't know that I'm right. It's just the narrative that makes the most sense to me. |
