The new nugget of information I found interesting

The new nugget of information I found interesting in today's PR is the additional detail on the company who IPIX has been in consultation with on K. I may be mistaken, but I do not recall them ever stating that the company is one of the "world's largest" and that “In attendance were the company’s CEO and senior scientists flown in from around the country." This makes me continue to suspect that it is Pfizer since they have been affiliated with K and CTIX from the very beginning.

The second new nugget (for me at least) is the stipulation of oral formulation in order to "enter into a development deal". Leo stated in past PRs that the reason they went into the phase 2 trial to demonstrate p53 modulation was because it was recommended by the pharma CTIX/IPIX was in consultations with. However, I do not recall the oral formulation having ever been mentioned before as a condition of a potential partnership. I am still on the fence as to whether this is a positive or a negative.
It may be positive in that IPIX was given the roadmap by the pharma and if they can meet the criteria they lock in a deal with them. Then it is off to the races with remaining trials.
It may be negative in that the pharma was not confident enough in the results of the phase 1 trial and wanted to further reduce risk. Therefore they chose not to enter into an early development deal with IPIX, knowing it would have accelerated the progress by giving them funds to work with. That tells me that the pharma is maybe hedging their potential bets on K science. Rather than inject funds early and risk losses if K fails, they allow IPIX to continue to move along slowly and see if they can succeed. If K science fails then the pharma is at no loss. If it succeeds then they only had to wait a few more years for a much safer play. If K science shows success but IPIX the company fails then the pharma just buys K for pennies and then takes the remaining risk themselves. It sure is nice to have the upper hand in deals like this..........

The one item I am a little confused/concerned about though is the true status of the oral development. The first paragraph in the PR states: "The Company is in the process of selecting a Contract Research Organization to complete the necessary remaining bridging toxicology work toward developing Kevetrin in oral form."
But one of the later paragraphs says: "The Company plans to provide further program updates once the Kevetrin toxicology studies conclude and oral formulation work commences."
I thought that they were well into oral formulation as early aslast year?? This statement tells me that it still has not started, which is really disappointing. I have interpreted from the whole last year and a half of PRs that oral formulation was ongoing. Have I been misunderstanding the status this whole time, or I am I misinterpreting today's update? Someone please help me out here.

I will end on a positive thought: I do like the tone of this PR as it relates to IPIX confidence in the company continuing to move forward with drug development. There is nothing in this or any of the recent PRs to suggest that they are worried that financing is going to be a roadblock any time soon. I hope that means we are close to closing that B-OM/IBD deal!!!!