It was stressed at the AGM that Starpharma’s focus is a DEP deal (or two) and that 2025 KPIs are linked to this important development. Somehow shareholders should apparently be pacified by this.
However, I can’t see any evidence in the approved Remuneration Report that links these KPIs to the strength of any deal. It would appear that any deal will suffice and will be the trigger.
It’s apparent that both Pfizer and Sanofi who are the owners of Irinotecan and Cabazitaxel have refused to licence either DEP from Starpharma (despite having the most intimate knowledge of the DEP results over the journey). IMO this speaks volumes.
So with these two big dogs out of the picture and no other big Pharma interested, there evaporates the potential $100m licencing deals that pumpers on this forum have been pushing for years.
So what now? Will any small deal do?
Hypothetically, if Starpharma sign ‘a deal’ with a 2nd tier Indonesian company to conduct a small staged Phase 3 trial for a 500k upfront licence fee, I guess that ‘deal’ will trigger KPIs for remuneration for the executives even though shareholders would be entitled to feel completely underwhelmed and short-changed after all the years of promise.
Perhaps these KPIs, but also remuneration, bonuses and free share allotments should all be linked the bonafides of any deal. Linked to the negotiated size of any upfront licence fee, strength of royalties and size of milestone payments.
This period is now at the pointy end of what the company has been working towards for over 2 decades. I just get the feeling that shareholders will soon face more disappointment.
SPL Price at posting:
9.9¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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