A China Tale, and Process

From the traditional folksong of Tiger Woman,
adapted by Laurence Yep

From Peter's first trip to China in November 2012 when he began to engage Chinese pharmaceutical companies for a regional partnership, to Eric and Peter's recent trip in August 2014 (the former's first) to sign a memorandum of understanding ("MOU") with one of them, Provectus principals have made five trips to China. These also include February, September and December 2013. 

The November 2012 trip comprised introductory meetings with companies of varying size and geographic scope. Subsequent follow-ups with some additional initial get-togethers too, essentially trips in 2013, comprised gradually more serious meetings with a short-list of more interested companies and increasing senior levels of their leadership. These introductions were facilitated by a number of individuals, agents and third parties that included strategic advisory board members, Network 1 Financial, and Maxim Group. Potential partners have interacted with Provectus in the interim via e-mail and phone, and conducted due diligence via the company's electronic data room. The culmination of these efforts and trips resulted in a first MOU for a China regional partnership with two subsidiaries of Sinopharm Group in August.

Generally speaking, an MOU is to a licensing deal or business relationship what a term sheet is to a venture capital investment and a letter of intent ("LOI") is to an acquisition: formalizations and acknowledgements of serious discussions towards the above mentioned ends, frameworks or outlines of business-investment-acquisition terms, conditions, rights, etc., and lists or mentions of other customary and perfunctory ifs, ands or buts.

Provectus noted in their press release:

During the next three months, the parties will seek to enter into a definitive licensing contract, subject to additional negotiation, due diligence, and any required regulatory and corporate approvals. The parties will further address the details of the license; the use of the technology from Provectus to Sinopharm A-THINK in China; the process for commercialization; and payments to Provectus (upfront, milestone and royalties). Provectus intends to manufacture PV-10 in the USA and Sinopharm A-THINK will distribute PV-10 in China. {Underlined emphasis is mine}

I'm reminded of our corporate venture capital process back in the day (our process flow is below), which I believe is a reasonable facsimile of Provectus' process and the process from Sinopharm's perspective in this situation.

Click to enlarge.

Preliminary analysis/assessment. Prior to Peter's trip, third parties introducers would have pre-submitted information about Provectus, PV-10, summary and previously public information about pre-clinical and clinical data, regulatory interactions, etc. to potential Chinese pharmaceutical company partners for their analysis and assessment, and to gauge any interest to learn more.

Management team meeting(s). The parties would have had an initial meeting, and potentially or eventually other more serious ones.

Due diligence. Although the graph above is linear and discrete in its steps, some actions are undertaken in parallel and are continuous, like due diligence, even after engagement is formalized. The potential licensee-investor-acquirer conducts due diligence in advance of and after the initial management team meeting, and as more meetings are conducted. As Provectus mentioned on several of its conference calls this year, Chinese companies (among others) have visited the electronic data room to review the various different types of documents stored there.

Due diligence of course goes beyond reading introductory collateral material, meeting management, and visiting data rooms. It extends to on-site visits of the business (Provectus), where clinical work is carried out (e.g., St. Luke’s Cancer Network, Moffitt Cancer Center) and with the people carrying this work out (e.g., Dr. Sanjiv Agarwala, M.D., Moffitt personnel), and other relevant and germane people, companies and institutions, and places. I imagine these due diligence activities are to come.

Term sheet negotiations. At some point, interest rises to a level where the parties can discuss price expectations and their associated structure, terms and conditions. If the parties can reach sufficient preliminary consensus they feel could ultimately lead to a transaction (but with no certainty nor obligation [unless they elect to bind themselves] to do so), they enter into or agree to an MOU-term sheet-LOI. As the jargon goes, MOUs are agreed to by the parties, while term sheets and LOIs are extended by one party to the other.

Negotiations of definitive agreements. When continuing due diligence is satisfactorily wrapped up, should the consensus remains the consensus, and if the broad and not so broad strokes of the MOU-term sheet-LOI are conveyed to definitive agreements, a definitive license-investment-purchase agreement may be struck for signing.

Deal closing. Documents are signed. Signatures are swapped. Money, securities, licenses, etc. change hands.

The process.

MOUs can be serious documents, and they can be far from serious. Sometimes also known as "Barney agreements" (i.e., "I love you, you love me") during the dot com era, Internet companies would enter into them with more established companies or other like venture-backed firms in hopes of demonstrating or simply giving the illusion of progress, business value creation, and rationale for increased valuation.

In the past management has garnered license and acquisition interest, in hand or through conversation, but nothing that rose to the level of both seriousness (met price expectations) and tangibleness (was on paper). For example*:

• Galderma's rumored 2010 interest in Provectus' dermatology business (on paper, but not serious),
• A Big Pharma's rumored 2011 interest to buy the intralesional drug compound company (not serious, and not on paper),
• Orbimed and Domain Associates-backed Eddingpharm's rumored 2013 interest to license PV-10 for sale in China and its territories (on paper, but not serious), and
• The above Big Pharma's rumored 2014 interest to acquire Provectus for twice its 2011 bid (still not serious enough, and still not on paper).

Provectus' MOU with Sinopharm is the first serious commercial interest the company has tangibly garnered. Tangibly serious because (i) it met management's price expectations as translated into potential payments to Provectus (i.e., upfront, milestone and royalties) and (ii) it was on paper.

To what, if anything, will/could the MOU between Provectus and the Sinopharm subsidiaries lead? The easiest way to answer this question of course is to wait and see if/when a license deal transaction is consummated between the parties. In the interim, I look at the situation this way: Provectus agreed to sign a document that formalized their discussions with Sinopharm towards the end of consummating a license deal and business relationship with the Chinese healthcare company under a framework of financial and business terms and conditions that may good to great [for Provectus], and we should know by mid-November or earlier if the parties ultimately do something together.

Finally, I wanted to comment on some of the verbiage in the MOU PR:

The MOU contains customary provisions regarding confidential information, publicity, and intellectual property, and is non-binding upon the parties (except for certain non-material provisions). The MOU shall continue in effect until the earliest of the replacement of the MOU with a definitive agreement, one month prior written notice by either Provectus or Sinopharm, or ninety days from the signing of the MOU.

In order to facilitate my comments, I also provided a sample or model venture capital investment term sheet below, which I utilized during my corporate venture capital investment days.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 1.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 2.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 3.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 4.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 5.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 6.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 7. 

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 8.

Click to enlarge. Sample venture capital investment term sheet, page 9 (of 9).

Provectus' MOU PR naturally did not discuss "price," or payments to Provectus (upfront, milestone and royalties). Management would not have signed an MOU if those elements were neither to their liking nor codified (summarily or specifically) in the document. The first page of a term sheet (i.e., page 1 above) or the first paragraph of an LOI, aside from pleasantries, typically addresses the headline numbers of a prospective deal. I previously have commented on this blog about Provectus' price expectations for a China partnership. One wouldn't have expected the company to detail price agreements with Sinopharm in either the PR or the associated 8-K filing. Additional MOUs maybe forthcoming, and there may be competitive interest. Then again, there may not be dueling interest that pushes price upwards, and I would presume Provectus then would be comfortable with price as outlined in the Sinopharm MOU (with perhaps some further wrangling to finalize agreement on the timing of payments).

The MOU PR discussed "customary provisions regarding confidential information, publicity, and intellectual property," some of which find commonality with the venture capital investment term sheet (i.e., page 7, Confidentiality). Later versions of my terms sheets included sections dealing with publicity, and intellectual property (of the target company) as and when appropriate.

MOUs, term sheets and LOIs are broadly binding (i.e., material and non-material provisions) when the parties agree to be so bound, or when one party wants the other party to be bound and the other party agrees to such binding. Usually, as illustrated by the sample or model term sheet above, these relationship documents generally aren't binding in any meaningful way (to allow an out for either party, but many times the the one wanting to partner, invest or purchase). For non-material binding provisions see page 8, Binding Provisions. For outs, see page 7, Conditions to Closing.

As the MOU PR noted, the term sheet often references the definitive investment (or securities purchase) agreement that replaces the MOU or term sheet. See page 7, Purchase Agreement or page 1, introduction, for example.

Term sheets often include a target closing date (see page 7, Closing Date) by which time the parties hope or seek to complete their negotiations to consummate a transaction (i.e., finalize definitive agreements, sign them, exchange whatever). The parties mutually agree on a timeframe; however, the closing date is not set in stone and can be mutually modified through subsequent revisions to the term sheet (in large part to maintain exclusivity until a transaction is done). Provectus MOU PR noted a ninety-day period, which should be the target or contemplated closing date.

Exclusivity clauses almost always are part of terms sheets and LOIs to provide sufficient timing for the parties (especially the motivated one) to consummate a transaction. They may be part of an MOU in terms of the transaction (i.e., Sinopharm may exclusively negotiate with Provectus until such time as a deal is done, or the parties part ways). I imagine if the MOU had an exclusivity clause, the MOU PR would have mentioned it (not saying anything about it says something too). Exclusivity certainly may be part of the business terms; in this case it is: "Sinopharm-CSIPI and Sinopharm A-THINK desire to obtain an exclusive license to commercialize PV-10 within [the People's Republic of] China territory, and PVCT is willing to grant such license to Sinopharm."

* Listen to Provectus' echo chamber long enough, do some due diligence and, pardon the pun, connect some dots, and you eventually make out what the original voice that started the echo said or meant to convey. And while it doesn't mean a hill of beans if it's not translated into share price, the sound nevertheless is informative and instructive.