So I am trying to read between the lines and I dont see in the PR where IPIX is announcing any actual purchase commitments or orders of B from Evonik, merely that the manufacturing contract is now in place. As always I am trying to take the skeptical approach to the announcement, but I see this as another very positive step. Maybe one negative is that Evonik appears to be a company with LOTS of different divisions and expertise, so to have inked an agreement with them may not be all that special. We may just be another company in their list of many. Regardless IPIX appears to be getting their pre-work in place and finalized in anticipation of starting to manufacture B, which tells me that they expect to have funding soon to order their drug compounds. We know that we dont have a lot of money to be spent, so they are doing what they can in the meantime to prepare for when that time comes. Someone already said it: "check another box off the list".

This is another example of confidence in management that the pipeline will continue to move forward. One question I am pondering though is whether this it is also another bargaining chip for negotiations with potential partners? As in; IPIX is demonstrating that they are continuing to prepare to "go it alone" and have selected how they are going to manufacture. Seems to me that a BP partner will already have some manufacturing agreements they will want to leverage if they get in business with IPIX.
OR, or, maybe Evonik is the preferred manufacturer of a partner(s) and IPIX is proactively meeting a condition. I guess we will have to continue to wait to find out.

Either way, this PR and the contract with Evonik is necessary and gets us one step closer to the end results: approved drugs to market.