General discussion, page-15568

Hey,

For me, the wildcard is trial costs. We know inflation, salary increases and skilled labor shortages have impacted these significantly.

We don't know exactly how much IHL's trial design will be impacted by this. The institutional CR will no doubt go a long way to covering increased costs, and perhaps then some. But this is an area that is difficult to quantify, so it makes me a little nervous. Certainly, if IHL were not cashed up as prettily as it is now, I would be sounding alarm bells. As things stand, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Indirect effects of a GFC would increase uncertainty of virtually every step of operations for most businesses around the world, but specifics are difficult to quantify. Which supply chain partners have exposure to which banks? I would expect delays to our project timelines if this sort of scenario were to eventuate. In a global event of that sort of magnitude, rare are the businesses who don't cop repercussions either directly or through their network of suppliers.

In terms of M&A activity, I would not be as concerned: big pharma acquisition budgets may not be significantly affected?