1) I don't think that pharma are trying to squeeze PYC nor that they are waiting until the IP expires. PYC are an early stage company and, for the most part, their IP is yet to reach proof of concept phase. Large pharma are likely to be interested if the proof of concept is realised or, if they have entered into an R&D collaboration with the company, when the company deliver on the stated goals (or demonstrate something interesting outside of the identified objectives).
2) The company are small but I don't think they are too small. The diversity of their IP library is very exciting and sometimes I think they are held back by a lack of available funding to invest in the platform to expedite the evaluation of the library but they still seem to be making progress. There are a lot of other players out there with deeper pockets than PYC but that is no surprise. The potential of intracellular drug delivery in particular is so great that you would be surprised if there weren't multiple other well capitalised players pursuing the objective through a variety of approaches.
3) Large pharma are unlikely to move on the company just because they are undervalued by the market - they are not opportunistic in that sense but are much more likely to pursue something that interests them when they can make a better assessment of the value of the company than the market can (and they will get to that position soon enough if something positive is uncovered in an R&D collaboration). Interestingly, large pharma are demonstrating an increasing willingness to look at companies in the pre-clinical phase in recent times (this is likely to be a natural consequence of increasing competition for early stage plays associated with the scarcity of potential candidates in the development pipeline). PYC have the attention of four of the world's top pharma companies (and the interest of many more) - the challenge for management is to convert that interest into value for shareholders.
PYC Price at posting:
2.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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