Some really good discussions here on deals and potentials.
Let me throw my 2 cents worth in.
I think it is a tale of two sides.
From their side (BP/MP), they have been scared off a bit with other drugs in the OA space...Tanezumab but even to some extent LOR...there has been very little overall success in this field. The Pharmas are much more on the conservative side. Agreed that it won't take much to put forward a heavily milestone'd deal...especially when it is still borderline 'early' (still havent started the last stage of P3 yet...)...but that's the point...they would only come up with smaller amounts up front potentially, at this juncture.
We might as well wait.
If we can manage to get funding sorted by some other means even just purely for the P3...and then we talk deals later (not earlier, 'later' meaning even as early as next year or mid way thru next year subject to when the P3 starts and what it looks like)...then that means MUCH bigger deal size. It wont be a linear increase...it will be exponential.
That's what it is all about...
Go now...don't get much...
Wait for a bit more longer....more data, P3 approved...TGA perhaps....then it comes together, our market cap goes up (SP) and we negotiate from a position of absolute power.
Why not wait a fraction more, we already have waited this long...hold out and then add so much more to ALL three parts of the deal:
This doesn't mean waiting for years...it's possibly months?
(20min delay)