It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few...

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.

For most of the recent past, PIQ's expenses have sat in the $1.5-1.8m range. The exception was the September quarter, where expenses suddenly jumped to $2.8m. R&D went up a bit but the jump came from admin, staff and manufacturing expenses, all of which doubled.

PIQ raised $8m at (more or less) the same time as the LOI with Sonic was announced. There are a few interesting aspects of this.

Firstly, it's not clear whether $8m is enough to see PIQ through to self sufficiency. The reimbursement code doesn't kick into gear until April, and even if the insurers get on board it usually takes a few months for the market to ramp up. Also, marketing expenses may well to kick up substantially (unless SHL comes to the party). PIQ usually pulls in ~300k a quarter, so if their expenses continue to track at nearly $3m it's a big ask to suddenly match that with revenue.

One thing that struck me as interesting was that there was no cash up front from SHL in the deal. Because that's the cliche, right? You do a deal with big pharma and get a big cash injection. Whether that means the backend for PIQ in terms of royalties is better, who knows (because hey, everything is confidential).

But then I suppose the "deal" with SHL is not a deal, it's an LOI which is not quite at the same level. As far as I can tell, from SHL's perspective, the whole thing is small beer. There was no ann at the time from SHL and I can't see anything on their website.

SO: will PIQ become cash flow positive, and if so when? Don't know. The next 4C comes out end January and the interim financial report end February. I would like to see a solid outline of the strategy within the next two months.