I agree with you that we can and should infer that

I agree with you that we can and should infer that phase 3 studies will start in 2018. I thought (hoped may be the better term) that you had found an easter egg in the fine print of an official IPIX PR or other post on the site that stated the trials ARE scheduled to start in 2018. If they put it in writing then I would have got even more excited than I already am.
I still have my fingers crossed that we get our first ice breaking partnership as soon as possible in the first quarter so that IPIX can leverage the new funds to accelerate all the platforms forward in 2018. I am confident that we are going to get all our trials done eventually, but the more that can be done in parallel the better. It is not like the competition is sitting on their hands waiting for IPIX to get game changing drugs approved. I really hope that much of the fine print and administrative steps have been or are being worked out while we wait for final data on the B and P trials. That way they can sign some deals quickly upon results rather than wait for the BP's corporate risk/reward and financial analysis to be completed along with the process of drafting the contracts and documents all followed up by the final approvals. That takes months to complete and can/should be something that could be done right now.