Sorry to hear of your predicament. Hopefully CM can work a miracle and pull Starpharma out of its death spiral but I have my doubts.
This company desperately needs a root and branch strategic review, program rationalisation and prioritisation, and a warts and all honest update to shareholders.
However, after following Starpharma closely for over 20 years, I see no evidence that the company is capable of doing this and ‘clearing the decks.’ It’s just not in their DNA.
To terminate a decade plus drug program or to cut loose a much touted partnership that is going nowhere would be an acknowledgment of failure. So instead of clearing the decks and giving shareholders the full picture, Starpharma could simply do this:
The ‘smelly’ research partnerships can continue ‘on foot’ forever. On foot meaning the most basic and minimum level of cooperation going on, or in fact nothing going on but a partnership in writing only for potential future research. This situation can continue until the ‘partnership’ is just never mentioned again in presentations and reports.
The ‘never a hope of getting commercialised drugs’ such as DEP-Docetaxel can remain forever in the ‘being assessed for further development’ file, or the ‘considering strategic options’ file, or the ‘in discussions with potential partners’ file. Why would a drug be terminated when it could remain in suspended animation forever?
So as for ‘clearing the decks’, I just don’t think we will see it.
