I just got off the phone with Dianne from  IR

I just got off the phone with Dianne from  IR ......she reassured me that the Phentermine is on the way to being launched as soon as possible and that there is absolutely nothing to worry about at this point. She said the launch was expected by the end of the month but that some of the necessary paperwork is not quite finished and once the t's are crossed and the i's dotted the phentermine will launch. Elite's personnel is working as hard as they can and is working as efficiently as they can with the small number of employees they have. She also relayed that Elite's Naltrexone has been ordered from their  API supplier and that the Naltrexone launch is moving forward as planned. 

She further said in relation to the number of employees that although Elite is growing and will continue to grow given Elite's increased revenues that their manufacturing personnel hasn't grown in the way that Elite's packaging unit has. Elite needed to  hire packaging personnel first and foremost before any other department was expanded but that this will happen and is planned in the not too distant future. I found this understandable and reassuring as I did not specifically ask about the increase in personnel to 26 employees. Thus, she offered this information freely and without prompting. 

I also asked about the ongoing  Novel discussions and she was candid to say that these are in the preliminary stages and that nothing is expected to move quickly here. She said the good news is that a few years ago when Elite approached Novel to look into monetizing their 10% Novel said no deal they weren't interested and so Elite decided to go with the  Epic Strategic Alliance instead. Now a few short years later Novel approached Elite to begin talks.....she said likely having to do with how quickly Novel is growing and makes sense for Novel to buy back their stake as soon as possible. The two sides need to come to an agreement though and this is going to take some time she said....and that the longer Novel waits the more Elite's worth in the company becomes. She also said that Elite got lucky to be able to buy into Novel in the first place... that when Veerappan sold Kali Labs to Par it looked like Par was going to take specific labs and leave Veerappan and thus his new company with zero lab space.....and Veerappan needed lab space and thus came to Elite for help with this......and the  partnership was formed.....and then Par decided it wasn't going to take the lab space and Veerappan took hold of the space. If he had known this he would not have come to Elite in the first place!! Nobody thought he would get it back so quickly....and his business at Novel took off way more quickly than anyone thought because of his gaining the lab space back unexpectedly. Quickly Elite's monetary commitment increased monumentally to Novel and out of the blue and thus with the market tanking in 2008 Elite did not have the cash to follow through as they would have had Novel grown in the fashion that was expected without the lab space..... and their ownership moved from 49% to 10%. She said this is the good and bad of the situation Elite has with Novel. Lucky to have the 10% but nobody expected Novel to take off as it did. 

She also said that Elite is moving forward with their abuse resistant  technology in regard to generic products and that in order to do a NDA abuse resistant product would entail Phase III trials and Elite would need to find funding hopefully in a partnership. She closed with saying Elite is on target with their  business plans and that the company is in way better shape financially than it was a few years ago. As usual I found her polite, helpful and candid within reason.