He doesn't have an equity vehicle for the research -- he needs funds for his university lab, but he's basically at a point where he needs more funding than he c

He doesn't have an equity vehicle for the research -- he needs funds for his university lab, but he's basically at a point where he needs more funding than he can get from public sources, but his work is still considered too speculatove for pharma companies, hence the "valley of death" monicker. Plus, acquisition doesn't mean the research will continue. I consulted with a med-tech startup a few years ago whose founders had, in a prior company, developed a novel adjuvant that was extremely promising in a wide variety of pharmaceutical applications. To commercialize the research, they were going to close a funding deal with a top-5 PE company -- on September 11, 2001. Needless to say, the funding fell through. They ended up selling the IP to a major pharma company, but that company wasn't willing to put the research dollars into proving out the science, so it sits on the shelf to this day.