I do have empathy with dog owners that have sick and dying pets...

I do have empathy with dog owners that have sick and dying pets - been there, done that, hated it and got yet still another dog - sucker for punishment I guess. We all make our choices but sadly every dog dies and we do what we can but holding grievance with the company for yourchoices is .... interesting. I don't think they held anything over you to make you do anything you did not choose to do of your own free will.

Let's now get professional about this.
The ability for the company to influence a major pharma is very minimal so the smart thing to do is to rally the troops:
- the customer/patient's advocates - Where might you find them? At international ALS conferences.
- the major pharmas interested in ALS / Neuro disease - Where might you find them? At international ALS conferences.
- the leading scientific minds in ALS and neurological diseases - Where might you find them? At international ALS conferences.
Building rapport and enhancing relationships via zoom is not all that viable in the international high stakes commercial game, particularly with folks who want to look you in the eye and discuss things over dinner that can't be easily discussed in a formal setting. You know, shooting the breeze over a beer. Face to face is incredibly valuable.

Dog deal - well, the results were not mind blowing so big pharma wasn't tripping over themselves to take it up. Maybe they would make a deal but it would have been pennies in the dollar, not to mention crippling any of the the human use deal value. Dog deal timing was also unfortunate with covid and all. End of the day, the value of a vet drug deal to a human neurological disease drug is likely to be chalk and cheese. Human use neurological has enormous potential, vet use is very limited and relatively very low value. (but if a deal is struck and they want to also do vet use, fine, give me royalty and I don't mind what it is)

The volume of people attending from the company to overseas events - I want them to attend all major ALS forums and take the right people so if they think they need the folks they are taking then so be it - operational decision and costs.

Emotional about it - the world of business tramples on emotions and doesn't give it a second thought. Ethical, maybe not sometimes but it is what it is and if you want to play with the big $ then you need to play hard. The decision making to park up dog trials and focus on neuro is sound IMO - see next point.

Strategic changes - I would be pissed if they didn't pivot with an opportunity like neurological and a lack of clear breakthrough on vet drug.

So nice post to explain what I think is a misguided perspective but when channels exist for minor and major shareholders to access engagement with the company then that is what should be used. The linkedin profile is not a shareholder engagement platform and it just shows a total lack of good judgement. Thankfully MT is professional enough to respond but he probably also gets empathy points from other CEOs of small pharmas who are trying to crack into the big money for all shareholders.

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