So, let's talk about Stern IR, costs, benefits and other stuff.
On October 4, 2018, Bioasis announced they were engaging
Stern IR. Bioasis was now paying Stern IR USD $15,000 per month. At the same time, Catherine London (Day) was being paid about CDN $225,000 per year. Using the
exchange rate of CDN $1.3079 on the date of the PR, the amount being paid for IR/communications worked out to about CDN $38,250.00 per month.
That amount, CDN $38,250.00 per month, was almost 10 times what I was making at the time. I don't include Colwell Capital because I don't think they are an IR cost, at least not in dollars.
Stern and Catherine had nowhere near the visibility that I had. I was in the public view every day. I was accessible every day. They did not talk to as many investors as I did. They didn't explain xB3 or the drug/disease combinations for which xB3 could be used. They didn't explain threatening technologies like focused ultrasound, Denali's stuff, or much of anything else. The didn't bother defending Bioasis when digitel (Prophetoffacts) spent two week arguing that Zymeworks was a threat to Bioasis. And yet Stern and CL were being paid 10 times what I was being paid. And I also came up with the xB3 name! So much for the professional branding consultations that Bioasis was doing at the time. They didn't like "Transcend" either. The got xB3 for nothing.
Anyway...
So, in the fall of 2019, when DrDR was trying to arrange the bridge financings, I get a call from her. She tells me how short of money Bioasis is, that cuts have to be made. She tells me that she has let Stern IR go. And then she hinted at a notion, in a very oblique manner, that maybe I should consider the difficulties at Bioasis, and maybe quit, or just go away or something. She never came right out and said it.
I stayed silent. I wasn't going to rise to that. Bioasis was way behind paying me. I had a contract. If she didn't want me around she could cancel my contract, IN WRITING BECAUSE THE CONTRACT SAYS SO. And I knew she'd have a problem with shareholders if she let me go. And I knew that she knew that. That's why she wouldn't give me the boot. I remember thinking that whoever talks next is going to lose. Crickets from me. She talked first, mostly to say, nice chatting, see ya later.
I don't know if DrDR was ever aware, then or even now, of the part I played in arranging the bridge loans. Almost all of the major lenders had long chats with me about it before they committed, even the broker and the other guy who both claimed such a big roles in that talked to me first. In total, but separately, they spent a lot of hours talking to me about Bioasis, xB3, the future, and lending money to Bioasis. I told them that Bioasis, if it existed, would be very different without the loans. And, I believed in xB3. Their worry, and my worry, too, was DrDR.
Anyway, I stayed with Bioasis and received a handful of payments for another year after that.
So, back to Stern IR.
On June 29, 2020, along came the
Chiesi deal. Then on July 16, 2020, Bioasis and Chiesi held their webcast. Shareholders will remember that one of the interesting things to come out of that webcast, its documentation and just from Bioasis/IR discussions of that time, was the announcement that Chiesi was going to help Bioasis with public and investor relations. We all thought that was pretty cool. It was discussed here on Stockhouse, but not by me.
Just to refresh memories, the webcast was 6 days after my call with DrDR where she had said to me, "Maybe you should take a break from Stockhouse for a while." So I didn't post anything on SH about the webcast or Chiesi's help with Stern IR.
A few weeks later, in September, came my last call with DrDR. We didn't discuss much, and as I related in another post, I never did figure out why she called. But one thing that was revealed to me was that Stern IR was back under contract, and helping Bioasis.
Stern IR was back and I'm immediately thinking, "$15,000 a month!" Stern isn't worth it, and I haven't been paid for months! That pissed me off. She may have realized what it meant to me because she immediately told me that Chiesi was footing the bill, or at least paying the bulk of it, making it possible for Bioasis to reengage with Stern IR. Given how invisible Stern IR was in the past, I didn't care much about that.
So, for me, it was more interesting that Chiesi was looking to the future with Bioasis. It all continued to suggest to me that Chiesi and Protalix could be candidates for more deals, or even a merger with or acquisition of Bioasis. They have an interest in Bioasis. Protalix needs IP flow and they introduced Bioasis to Aposense. Within minutes of the Chiesi/Bioasis PR on June 29, 2020, I discovered Protalix and ProCellEx. Within a couple of days I started talking about it privately with several shareholders. And then there is the the phrase in the Chiesi/Bioasis deal PR about rare diseases with a focus on four LSDs. I've written enough about that. I think this there may be stuff under the surface with Bioasis, Chiesi and Protalix.
And then, one more time, there is the call on July 10th, 2020, the "Maybe you should stay away from Stockhouse for a while" call from DrDR. Leading up to a question about ProCellEx, I asked DrDR about fusion proteins, and about post-expression and post-translational chemical adjustments of them. I mentioned WuXi's work. She told me, not very politely, that she knew more about monoclonal antibodies than I'll ever know. Ok, true story. Her reaction was telling enough. No need to go on. I dropped it. Then I said, "Protalix's ProCellEx technology..." She cut me off and said, quote, "I can't talk about ProCellex." That's all, not I shouldn't, or I won't, it was I can't. There wasn't much said after that.
Obviously, ProCellEx meant something to Dr. Deborah Rathjen. Her quick loss of composure was interesting. Would she have lost it with a regular caller? Doubt it. None of it may mean further deals with one or both of Chiesi and Protalix, but she certainly recognized that ProCellEx name, instantly.
So, I was told Stern IR is back. ProCellEx exploded in my face. So, here's the question. DrDR lost control over ProCellEx. In September she told me that Stern IR was back with Bioasis, with help from Chiesi. Am I breaking my nondisclosure agreements with Bioasis by revealing those discussions? The last month for which I've been paid is May, 2020. Did DrDR believe that I was still on-contract with Bioasis after May 31, 2020? In July? In September?
There's more, and I'll get to it. I want to thank craighenry for his golden posts. Bless him and all who sail upon him.
So, US shareholders, is Stern IR helping you down in Los Angeles? Baton Rouge? Minnesota? Michigan? New York? Palm Springs? Albuquerque? Kook.a....munga?
We're goin' ridin' down the freeway, of love, in a pink Cadillac...
I am so ready to fight. Almost $40,000 bucks a month, and nothing. I put my heart and soul into it for a tenth of that.
Go, Stern IR. Go! You got some catching up to do.
jd