Why VLA and not BNO???, page-7

Vaccines and pharmaceuticals are developed in entirely separate areas within the big phramacos. It is a bit hard to look from the outside and say they can be comparable transactions (and potential transactions). They simply are not. Merck Vaccines is likely to have sifted through a huge number of clinical studies, looked at the Viralytics technology and made a judgement that this is the best one they can get for a price that is low enough to allow for the massive costs of additional product development. The vaccines division might also have had a lot of pressure placed on it for new technologies (that is speculation) which forced their hand a little. None of that might apply in Merck's drug development division (although the cost of going from P2 to market with 210 will be substantial and Merck is probably sifting through lots of clinical studies of drugs too). I would not try to compare vaccines with traditional drugs nor would I try to compare oncological indications with PTSD. That is a bit dangerous. I'd also throw in that BNO is probably (and justifiably, although some would argue that) looking to get more than $500m in a bid for the company. Of course, that is a whole other debate but one that I would support mgt on if they said that $500m is not enough. GLTA