bta takeover very possible, page-29

dday

What Wilson HTM have speculated is what makes sense to me.

With all the talk about maximum production and together with the behind closed doors British govt negotiated Anti Viral returns, the poor Relenza sales figures (particularly in Europe) surprised all.

The spirit of Price maintenance is (I believe) a little different here. In this case, Glaxo is the sole distributor of Relenza - it has no competition. It also does not have a cost price (apart from its manufacturing costs) and it does not purchase from Biota. It can set its own price and it retains 93% of what it sells Relenza for. Surely a floor selling price or min royalty per unit would be a reasonable expectation - it would certainly avoid the possibility of using Biota as a bargaining chip (and I hope this hasn't happened).

You mention that Biota believe they must be consulted by Glaxo if they want to discount it. That doesn't sound to me like they know for sure. Can you get a categorical answer on this?

I think you mentioned in an earlier post (in relation to Biota being a takeover target) that it is possible that Glaxo may have pushed sales out till one day into this quarter in order to put pressure on the Biota SP. Peter Cook doesn't seem to think this is the case - he triggered the recent price tumble with his uncalled for remark that June quarter sales were traditionally the lowest of the year.

dday - thanks for your wishes :-)