Merck & CYDY's CEO, Dr. Jay Lalezari Not sure i
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Posted On: 09/08/2025 9:57:16 PM
Merck & CYDY's CEO, Dr. Jay Lalezari
Not sure if this has already been posted but I found it interesting...
In the first full year that Dr. Jay was CytoDyn's CEO, only one big pharma company purchased "food and beverage" for Dr. Jay, as reported here (toward bottom of the following link):
https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/physician/142290
Looks like someone from Merck met with Dr. Jay over lunch or a drink. Hopefully we'll find out soon whether or not whatever they discussed was of any importance to us CYDY shareholders and to patients.
In Dr. Jay's recent YouTube interview, he mentioned feeling pressure to confirm (via the ongoing, open-label colon cancer trial) Leronlimab's ability to turn cold tumors hot (among its many other anti-cancer abilities). The big question, for me at least, is whether this pressure is coming from the FDA itself (who may be inclined to approve our drug pending further data) or from a prospective big pharma partner who are awaiting more data before signing on the dotted line.
Another intriguing thing; ABSCI has long been rumored to be the A.I. drug development company that's helping CYDY develop long-acting Leronlimab. CYDY has referenced that a third-party has been paying for this process. If you check out ABSCI's "partnerships" page, the two companies that jump out are Merck and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. My money would be on Merck as the company footing CYDY's bills, but again, time will reveal whether or not there's any fire behind all this smoke.
https://www.absci.com/partnerships/
This may be of interest too; a mystery entity footed the bill for CYDY's lawsuit against Amarex, which was handled by the highly prestigious (and very expensive) Sidley Austin law firm. From what I understand, they don't typically take on companies like CYDY as clients.
Worth noting:
Sidley Austin LLP has represented Merck (both Merck & Co., Inc. and the German Merck KGaA) in several matters, including patent litigation concerning Merck's Keytruda® cancer drug, the ZETIA/VYTORIN patent infringement lawsuit, and a drug discovery collaboration. The firm's Life Sciences practice is known for advising clients like Merck on a wide range of legal and transactional issues.
Of course there's also former Merck employee Joseph Miedling, who is a member of CytoDyn's leadership team:
https://www.cytodyn.com/our-team/leadership-team
Joseph Meidling
VP, Clinical Operations
Mr. Meidling joined CytoDyn in March of 2021 as Senior Director of Portfolio and Project Management and in May of 2022 was appointed Senior Director of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining CytoDyn, Mr. Meidling spent nearly 22 years at Merck where he held various positions of increasing responsibilities in Drug Development. He was a director in Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine and led the Pharmacogenomics and Biorepository group before moving on to become the site lead for Merck’s Kenilworth facility and was responsible for Merck’s Early-Stage Development portfolio and resource planning. Mr. Meidling has a BS in Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MBA from Montclair State University.
Also, this: "Merck still scouting for M&A deals, even after $10.8B takeover of Prometheus"
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/merck-sti...prometheus
“We continue to have a priority to do business development, so you should not necessarily expect a slowdown,” Merck CEO Rob Davis said. “If and when assets that bring important scientific opportunities present themselves—where we see an alignment with strategy and where we can see value creation—we have the capacity and we will be willing to act on those."
Lastly, for what it's worth, here's CytoDyn's former President, Dr. Cyrus Arman, in a 2023 interview :
“From a mechanistic standpoint, we believe we could get a synergistic effect with a checkpoint inhibitor,” he said. Leronlimab is currently being trialed in combination with Merck's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a breast cancer xenograft model in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center. Arman said CytoDyn expects to observe an enhanced anti-tumor effect from the combination and identify immunological biomarkers. In terms of future partnerships, Arman isn’t concerned that CytoDyn’s history will have a negative effect. “I think that most companies are data-first,” he said. “If we come and we show the data that we have…I think they’ll see, here’s an organization that has transformed from what it used to be.”
___________________________
Whether CYDY ultimately rolls solo or with a partner (be it Merck or some other big pharma), let's hope we get good news soon for the benefit of all the sick patients out there. I genuinely feel humanity would benefit tremendously from Leronlimab's approval and I eagerly await that day.
I remain... #BULLISH
Not sure if this has already been posted but I found it interesting...
In the first full year that Dr. Jay was CytoDyn's CEO, only one big pharma company purchased "food and beverage" for Dr. Jay, as reported here (toward bottom of the following link):
https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/physician/142290
Looks like someone from Merck met with Dr. Jay over lunch or a drink. Hopefully we'll find out soon whether or not whatever they discussed was of any importance to us CYDY shareholders and to patients.
In Dr. Jay's recent YouTube interview, he mentioned feeling pressure to confirm (via the ongoing, open-label colon cancer trial) Leronlimab's ability to turn cold tumors hot (among its many other anti-cancer abilities). The big question, for me at least, is whether this pressure is coming from the FDA itself (who may be inclined to approve our drug pending further data) or from a prospective big pharma partner who are awaiting more data before signing on the dotted line.
Another intriguing thing; ABSCI has long been rumored to be the A.I. drug development company that's helping CYDY develop long-acting Leronlimab. CYDY has referenced that a third-party has been paying for this process. If you check out ABSCI's "partnerships" page, the two companies that jump out are Merck and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. My money would be on Merck as the company footing CYDY's bills, but again, time will reveal whether or not there's any fire behind all this smoke.
https://www.absci.com/partnerships/
This may be of interest too; a mystery entity footed the bill for CYDY's lawsuit against Amarex, which was handled by the highly prestigious (and very expensive) Sidley Austin law firm. From what I understand, they don't typically take on companies like CYDY as clients.
Worth noting:
Sidley Austin LLP has represented Merck (both Merck & Co., Inc. and the German Merck KGaA) in several matters, including patent litigation concerning Merck's Keytruda® cancer drug, the ZETIA/VYTORIN patent infringement lawsuit, and a drug discovery collaboration. The firm's Life Sciences practice is known for advising clients like Merck on a wide range of legal and transactional issues.
Of course there's also former Merck employee Joseph Miedling, who is a member of CytoDyn's leadership team:
https://www.cytodyn.com/our-team/leadership-team
Joseph Meidling
VP, Clinical Operations
Mr. Meidling joined CytoDyn in March of 2021 as Senior Director of Portfolio and Project Management and in May of 2022 was appointed Senior Director of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining CytoDyn, Mr. Meidling spent nearly 22 years at Merck where he held various positions of increasing responsibilities in Drug Development. He was a director in Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine and led the Pharmacogenomics and Biorepository group before moving on to become the site lead for Merck’s Kenilworth facility and was responsible for Merck’s Early-Stage Development portfolio and resource planning. Mr. Meidling has a BS in Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MBA from Montclair State University.
Also, this: "Merck still scouting for M&A deals, even after $10.8B takeover of Prometheus"
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/merck-sti...prometheus
“We continue to have a priority to do business development, so you should not necessarily expect a slowdown,” Merck CEO Rob Davis said. “If and when assets that bring important scientific opportunities present themselves—where we see an alignment with strategy and where we can see value creation—we have the capacity and we will be willing to act on those."
Lastly, for what it's worth, here's CytoDyn's former President, Dr. Cyrus Arman, in a 2023 interview :
“From a mechanistic standpoint, we believe we could get a synergistic effect with a checkpoint inhibitor,” he said. Leronlimab is currently being trialed in combination with Merck's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a breast cancer xenograft model in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center. Arman said CytoDyn expects to observe an enhanced anti-tumor effect from the combination and identify immunological biomarkers. In terms of future partnerships, Arman isn’t concerned that CytoDyn’s history will have a negative effect. “I think that most companies are data-first,” he said. “If we come and we show the data that we have…I think they’ll see, here’s an organization that has transformed from what it used to be.”
___________________________
Whether CYDY ultimately rolls solo or with a partner (be it Merck or some other big pharma), let's hope we get good news soon for the benefit of all the sick patients out there. I genuinely feel humanity would benefit tremendously from Leronlimab's approval and I eagerly await that day.
I remain... #BULLISH
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