Yeah, this seems a bit of a sad story. It looks like we have arrived at the point of no return where the company is going to have raise money but the share price is so low and the track record so suspect that it is hard to see how it can do so.
The contrary indication is that some major holders, apparently, have kept their holdings in the company following the closure of the Yuawa (?) fund, which suggests they see some reason to hang on.
I am out for good, I think, but I had great hopes for this technology. Indeed, I think the best thing that could happen now for the wider world, is for 1AD to fold up quickly and let the IP be picked up by someone who might do something with it.
It is strange to say this, but when I was a part-owner of this company, I did not know what was going on in any detail. Surely that's wrong? And an invitation to misconduct? There may well have been undisclosed matters in the background that made everything that has happened entirely reasonable. I doubt it. But how would anyone know? Boards should be obliged to be much more open with the people who actually own the business. Company boards, like governments, can always think of a million reasons why things should be kept secret. They should be over-ridden.
The rot, in my view, started in the Samantha Cobb days, so I would partly excuse the present management. But the decision to pursue the FC-fusion excursis was a fateful one.
Even for a biotech start-up, there is a subtle but real difference between working capital and a research grant. If they had pressed ahead with AD-114, I think they might have got through the famous "valley of death". But once they got cowed into dribbling backwards and forwards across the goal-mouth, waiting for the perfect opportunity to shoot, they were always more likely to hear the full-time whistle than applause.
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