While the risk of a predatory private equity takeover attempt is...

While the risk of a predatory private equity takeover attempt is real, I think for the moment the likehood of them taking anything but a positioning stake (eg JC's shares) are low risk because
1) they wouldn't want to derail the current trial plans with disruption to management & team
2) they would want to see clinical results from upcoming trial before going all in
3) the share register is concentrated & seemingly tightly held by SH prepared to wait for the big payday

However if a PE did buy an early stake, that would be good for the SP in the short-term imo, and be a likely catalyst for further gains later if the clinical trial results are positive. So for this reason, my hope would be that JC does sell some or all of his shares to a PE and if I were him I would sell some of my holdings knowing that it might be a catalyst.