Ann: Update - Notification of buy-back - NEU, page-51

Not sure how easy it is to find a marketing and distribution company up for sale that would have the characteristics required for your kind of business.

In the US drugs are more commonly dispersed through providers such as Cardinal Health or McKesson Corp. Acadia has a relationship with McKesson which is the dominant drug distributor in the US (25% of the market) which also has a significant presence in Europe. These companies can also provide sales and marketing services for drug companies which may suit new/small entities, but I think the preference would be to have your own in house marketing team to create and drive the brand rather than have someone else do it in a less than optimal fashion.

I'm pretty sure Neuren would employ one of these distributors to distribute their drugs, the only reasons why you would want to build your own distribution network is if you see an economic advantage in doing so or there is a drug-specific aspect for it. Clinuvel built their own distribution network in the US, but they only serve ~500 patients with small implants so it's not terribly onerous. However, to prevent their drug from being abused for cosmetic purposes and being prescribed off label they've maintained control over the drug from the very beginning.

It seems to me that enabling distribution of drugs is not a difficult affair, Cardinal et al provide a full service making it relatively easy. Building the sales team, and by extension building out the larger organisation with sales reps, regional managers, directors of this and that etc is a challenge but then you have a vast talent pool of seasoned pharmaceuticals professionals who can ramp up the business should Neuren decided to go it alone.

What I think is the real issue is that Jon's heart is simply not in this. Thats not a criticism, if he thinks patients are better served by giving over stewardship of Neuren's drugs to someone else with greater reach and resources within a given timeframe then so be it. But I sense rightly or wrongly that Jon has never wanted to go down this road, perhaps he is just as keen to get paid as we all are (including Tony). To go all the way to becoming a full function pharma company is not an extreme endeavour, but it does requires time and serious effort to get it all going which I don't think Jon has the want or drive to do it.