Dinner at Eight

I recently hosted Dr. Dees for a dinner to which I invited several non-investors. Our party included a radiation oncologist, an intellectual property attorney, a technology entrepreneur and a commercial banker. Spending time with Craig is always entertaining and informative. Having dinner with him takes entertainment and information to another level. I feel fortunate to have these opportunities.

As we broke bread together, the group learned several things from Craig, such as:

• How PV-10 works. He simplified the mechanism of action to the audience (e.g., why does rose bengal do what it does near and in the cell). The specificity of these comments built upon my previous understanding and strengthened my overall knowledge;
• The company's strategy of demonstrating broad application of PV-10 through the flagship indication of MM, surrounded by Phase 1/Phase 2 work on multiple indications, like breast, liver, pancreas, etc.;
• His view on why combination therapies (e.g., PV-10 + radiotherapy, PV-10 + ipilimumab, PV-10 + dacarbazine) seem to work dramatically better, particularly on late stage patients with severe affliction, because of the addition of PV-10 and his hypothesis of its impact on the immune system in order to more effectively leverage the other therapy;
• Moffitt’s excitement over their immunology work. They confirmed the bystander effect using a mouse lung metastasis model much harsher than the real disease. Moffitt's results were very robust and beyond what they have ever observed from other treatments using this model. PV-10 nearly cleared the lungs of all tumors; and
• Dr. Ross’ effusive comments at the HemOnc Today Conference in New York City earlier this year. He said PV-10 should be a first-line treatment [after surgery has failed to stop the spread of the disease] and should already be approved for use.

After the other guests left, we had the opportunity to spend some more time with Craig, and chatted with him about several other topics and items.