2022 PAR AGM

In a follow up to my earlier post on the general discussion thread, I have made my decision regarding how I will vote at the AGM. The below are my frustrations and thoughts on the current situation.

1)008 Trial - The first crack at the 008 trial was suspended/abandoned. I’ve mentioned this before but WTF happened here? Something went wrong somehow as you don’t stop a trial halfway through if it’s been running well.

2)Vacant CEO position - PR left the CEO position and handed the reigns to Donna as an interim CEO. Donna was hired as a CMO and that’s what she is good at. Where is the succession planning and why was this not planned properly? This is an absolute critical time for the business, and it seems as through PR may have been waiting for Phase 3 approval for this transition. Therefore, they had an additional 8 to 9 months to find someone. Are they having a hard time trying to convince someone to fill the position?

3)FDA taking PAR to the circus. The timeline to final approval now looks like it will be 2026+. Before PAR was led up the garden path by the FDA it was 2022. I think we are all underestimating the impact the FDA process will have on PAR . The FDA has played funny buggers and the additional information that PAR now needs to furnish the FDA with adds time, money, and complexity to the process. This was not required to the EMA or TGA and the trials would have been less than a year away from completion if the FDA didn’t have their way with PAR. In hindsight, I believe PAR should have done the trials in two steps. One being the European and Australian trials and the second being the US. PAR would then be in a position where revenue would have been received later this year which could fund the US trials. Furthermore, the FDA would really struggle with their delays and requests for additional information when millions of patients would have been treated outside the US. Imagine the hysteria in the US if the world had access to this drug and they did not.

This FDA experience has screwed the company of time, money, and direction. May have been better to change course from what seemed at the time to be a logical money saver of fulfilling three regions at once to now it being more costly, risky, and much longer to receiving revenue. The FDA has probably cost PAR three years plus of delayed revenue. The priorlogic of combining the regions now does not stack up. There is now the obvious risk of additional delays due to additional complexity.

4)Funding concerns - Uncertainty of financial funding to take PAR through to the end of the Phase 3 trials. There will always be speculation until there is a clear path. Will PAR be in a position to even raise at a price where current shareholders would be happy with? There is lots of uncertainty in the broader market regarding COVID and inflation. PAR could find themselves having to raise funds in a period like March 2020 again. That would be a very bad result for shareholders.

Half the battle of being on a board is to take the shareholders with you along the journey and the only way for this to happen is to communicate and make shareholders feel like they are informed. This has not happened.

To highlight the above, PAR seems to have been abandoned by the staunchest of supporters. One example is the deafening silence from Scott Williams. He used to provide podcasts and interviews with PR when the share price fell. We have heard nothing from him for the best part of year. Quite telling and its not the only supporter who has gone quite. This is concerning and can only be interpreted as them distancing themselves from PAR. No one now seems to want to stick their necks out to publicly support PAR.

I really do believe in the product but unfortunately its not all about the product. They way it works is that its about the story, it’s about trust in management’s ability, and it’s about the pharma politics. The current management has not conveyed to the market and shareholders that they can take this all the way to registration. This should be a slam dunk and unless something changes at board level, I am concerned that either we will all be duded and this will be sold at a bargain basement price if the business continues on its current path.

I hope I am wrong and that PR and team surprise us all at the upcoming AGM. I have been a cheerleader for PAR in the past but now I seem to be a cheerleader for iPPS. It will be a blockbuster one day and we need to make sure we are a part of this, not lamenting at the one that got away. We need the right team to take us there. At the moment, the current board are not inspiring any confidence.

The above are my thoughts on the current situation and is why I will be voting against some of the remuneration resolutions at the AGM.