Perhaps TAK, not MRK, lies in LL's future. We
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Posted On: 05/27/2023 4:58:05 PM
Perhaps TAK, not MRK, lies in LL's future.
We all lament the PR announcement that Cyrus has been forced to take a leave of absence due to health concerns and root for his speedy recovery. (I feel especially bad that I criticized his attempted explanation of the status of the hold during the last CC at a time when he was likely suffering the ill effects of his current condition.). The same PR also referenced the recent appointments, no doubt engineered by Cyrus, of Dr Melissa Palmer as interim CMO and Dr Salah Kivlighn as a strategic advisor As Hulk and other board members have observed, both of these additions bring stellar credentials to CYDY.
Dr Palmer has spent her entire medical career in the field of hepatology and Dr Kivlighn, whose past experience included oncology and 15 years at Merck, came out of retirement in 2021 to become CEO of HepaTx, a small biotech focused exclusively on developing stem cells to treat NASH. Both Palmer and Kivlighn have extensive experience directing clinical trials, and Joseph Medling, whom Cyrus hired several months ago, is CYDY's Director of Clinical Operations. This lineup of personnel and expertise, as well as the reference in the PR to pursuing a Phase 2b clinical trial for Nash, as the next goal after the lifting of the hold, would strongly suggest to me that management intends to pursue a long term commitment (likely 1 to 2 years) to advancing LL for Nash, and somehow, somewhere, find the financial support to accomplish this, all in the hope that the FDA will react favorably to such efforts.
As straightforward as the above described factors appear to be, my mind keeps reverting back to 2 other tidbits from the PR: the third referenced goal of "exploring potential strategic business opportunities;" and Dr Palmer's recent tenure as head of the hepatology department at Takeda (TAK). And while a partnership agreement to conduct a Nash clinical trial would certainly qualify as a "strategic" opportunity, so also would a buyout. And when I did some basic Google research on TAK, I was stunned to realize how neatly LL would mesh with TAK's goals and strategies.
While TAK has formed partnerships, it has been an acquisition machine -- 19 over the last dozen years, including a $62 B merger with Shire in 2019 in which it paid approximately half in cash and half in TAK stock to move from a top 20 pharma in revenue to top 10. TAK's 2 main areas of focus happen to be oncology and liver disease. Although TAK considerably slowed its acquisitions after Shire due to the substantial debt that acquiring Shire necessitated, it has dramatically reduced that debt since 2019, and recently announced that its focus is back on raising its revenue.
TAK is the largest drug company in Asia, and I have no idea if its American born CEO, Christopher Weber, has ever heard of CYDY or LL. But assuming, without knowing, that Dr Palmer, who moved from Shire to TAK during the merger, and then left TAK in December 2020, to become CMO of the American subsidiary of a small Chinese drug company, remains on good terms and in touch with TAK management, including perhaps Mr Weber, it seems possible that LL could be on TAK's radar. And if TAK is looking for an oncology and/or liver drug with the potential to generate tens of billions of revenue that it could buy relatively cheaply -- voila!
And since some may recall my reflections on the LL/Keytruda humanized mice study by Dr Lee at MD Anderson together with my optimistic hypothesis that MRK should and might realize that LL could enhance Keytruda's efficacy and possibly extend its patent, -- how about a bidding war between TAK and MRK to buyout CYDY? That would certainly render moot our ongoing discussions about the motivations of the FDA toward CYDY and likely result in LL being approved and available to mankind much sooner than later.
We all lament the PR announcement that Cyrus has been forced to take a leave of absence due to health concerns and root for his speedy recovery. (I feel especially bad that I criticized his attempted explanation of the status of the hold during the last CC at a time when he was likely suffering the ill effects of his current condition.). The same PR also referenced the recent appointments, no doubt engineered by Cyrus, of Dr Melissa Palmer as interim CMO and Dr Salah Kivlighn as a strategic advisor As Hulk and other board members have observed, both of these additions bring stellar credentials to CYDY.
Dr Palmer has spent her entire medical career in the field of hepatology and Dr Kivlighn, whose past experience included oncology and 15 years at Merck, came out of retirement in 2021 to become CEO of HepaTx, a small biotech focused exclusively on developing stem cells to treat NASH. Both Palmer and Kivlighn have extensive experience directing clinical trials, and Joseph Medling, whom Cyrus hired several months ago, is CYDY's Director of Clinical Operations. This lineup of personnel and expertise, as well as the reference in the PR to pursuing a Phase 2b clinical trial for Nash, as the next goal after the lifting of the hold, would strongly suggest to me that management intends to pursue a long term commitment (likely 1 to 2 years) to advancing LL for Nash, and somehow, somewhere, find the financial support to accomplish this, all in the hope that the FDA will react favorably to such efforts.
As straightforward as the above described factors appear to be, my mind keeps reverting back to 2 other tidbits from the PR: the third referenced goal of "exploring potential strategic business opportunities;" and Dr Palmer's recent tenure as head of the hepatology department at Takeda (TAK). And while a partnership agreement to conduct a Nash clinical trial would certainly qualify as a "strategic" opportunity, so also would a buyout. And when I did some basic Google research on TAK, I was stunned to realize how neatly LL would mesh with TAK's goals and strategies.
While TAK has formed partnerships, it has been an acquisition machine -- 19 over the last dozen years, including a $62 B merger with Shire in 2019 in which it paid approximately half in cash and half in TAK stock to move from a top 20 pharma in revenue to top 10. TAK's 2 main areas of focus happen to be oncology and liver disease. Although TAK considerably slowed its acquisitions after Shire due to the substantial debt that acquiring Shire necessitated, it has dramatically reduced that debt since 2019, and recently announced that its focus is back on raising its revenue.
TAK is the largest drug company in Asia, and I have no idea if its American born CEO, Christopher Weber, has ever heard of CYDY or LL. But assuming, without knowing, that Dr Palmer, who moved from Shire to TAK during the merger, and then left TAK in December 2020, to become CMO of the American subsidiary of a small Chinese drug company, remains on good terms and in touch with TAK management, including perhaps Mr Weber, it seems possible that LL could be on TAK's radar. And if TAK is looking for an oncology and/or liver drug with the potential to generate tens of billions of revenue that it could buy relatively cheaply -- voila!
And since some may recall my reflections on the LL/Keytruda humanized mice study by Dr Lee at MD Anderson together with my optimistic hypothesis that MRK should and might realize that LL could enhance Keytruda's efficacy and possibly extend its patent, -- how about a bidding war between TAK and MRK to buyout CYDY? That would certainly render moot our ongoing discussions about the motivations of the FDA toward CYDY and likely result in LL being approved and available to mankind much sooner than later.
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