Oxford is a lovely place

but Biota won't have a presence there any more.

Prolysis's gyrase program was based in Oxford, and has continued there since Biota bought it in 2010.

But no more - the company has announced it will shut it down, and presumably the whole operation in Oxford goes. Prof Errington goes from the Board to potentially no longer being with the company at all.

I don't know whether that's a reflection of the competition in gyrase programs, or an assessment of their quality. It might have to do with the purchase of a new program. But, I have a feeling it has simply to do with reducing costs. Running two labs in two relatively expensive places, and neither leveraging each other.

The unwinding of Biota's last 4 years is nearly complete.

There are a lot of senior executives who oversaw and analysed the entry into those programs who are still with the company. Prolysis, Maxthera, rhinovirus: all cost the company probably in the order of 80 million between purchase and expenditure since then (although the first two were bought with hugely overvalued Biota shares).

Some Plumb and Patti type consultants would have been useful in 2010.

Anyway, here we are. The new question becomes whether the market will value the concentration in influenza and the step progress toward registration of LANI in the US. And what and how any new program will be purchased.