3rd party partnership proposals For new Sirona shareholders (nothing new here)...
The update mentions that Sirona has been approached by others, presumably parties with carbohydrate molecules that need stabilization. There are a lot of pharmacologically active compounds that are carbohydrate based, or have important carbohydrate moieties. Most of these couldn't be made into drugs because the have short half lives because they are degraded quickly.
As was discussed here before, the use of fluorine to stabilize organic molecules is not new, but the use of CF2 to stabilize a wide range of carbohydrates by replacing an ester oxygen has very important ramifications. Suddenly, whole classes of compounds that were poor drug candidates become good candidates.
Any company with a drug candidate like that could become interested in this technology - if Sirona proves it can execute. The importanceof a significant partnership deal is not merely the money it may be able to bring in (after all, most drug candidates fail in the clinic), but that it validates the technology in the eyes of others. There are a lot companies that have much less to offer that are trading at much higher market caps. This is not just a company with a couple of interesting molecules. This is a play on a whole new frontier in pharmaceutical science.
Still, I'm waiting for the deal before getting too excited. ;)
-a