Hey, I hear you and I'm hoping for the same. I'd love for it to be that there's a BP - or two! - seriously at the table for the same deal or bigger. There's still an inherent problem though in that much like Cousin Eddie showing up to the Griswolds' house, the RV is pulling up to the current HIV deal on fumes. So now they would have to squeeze blood from a stone for a few more months in hopes that the next deal comes to fruition in a timely manner and saves the day financially. As others have alluded to, the carrot has to stop moving at some point.

A bigger or better deal, with a bigger or better partner, is simply moving the carrot unless they can PR an NBA with the name of the partner and the terms. The exposure in that case would be worth it, because saying that you have an NBA for an $XXX million (billion?) deal with (Bayer? Gilead? Merck?) would provide the exposure to likely move the share price and allow them to fund at more acceptable levels.

I expect only to hear an update on the FDA dose selection and some smoke about needing to be careful and exploring options with new partners based on new data. I hope I'm wrong, but empirical evidence calls it smart money at this point.