Update to Commsman's Pitcht for IMBARK PHASE III to the Geron Executive Management Team and Board of Directors

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Commsman
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2019 11:35 am

Update to Commsman's Pitcht for IMBARK PHASE III to the Geron Executive Management Team and Board of Directors

Post by Commsman » Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:31 am

On Tuesday, April 9 at approximately 1:30 pm Eastern Time, I received the below e-mail from investor relations:

“Hello Cxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your interest in Geron, your feedback is appreciated.

Stockholders wishing to communicate with the Board, or with a specific Board member, may do so by writing to the Board, or to the individual Board member, and delivering the communication in person or mailing it to: Board of Directors, c/o Stephen N. Rosenfield, Corporate Secretary, Geron Corporation, 149 Commonwealth Drive, Suite 2070, Menlo Park, California 94025. All mail addressed in this manner will be delivered to the Chair or Chairs of the Board committees with responsibilities touching most closely on the matters addressed in the communication.

-Jacob Goldberger, CG Capital”


OK Shorty’s, have a good laugh, I know I did! Longs and onlookers, you too! Enjoy a nice hearty laugh on me!

: - P

I actually first saw the email as I was registering for the Needham Healthcare Conference Call. I barely had time to read it. Basically, it was a nice polite brush-off! It also happened to kick off one of the busiest weeks of my year, so it just kinda’ simmered while I was distracted with the amazing Needham Presentation -n- Q & A session performance by John Scarlett, and then my personal fun busy week. Well, I got to thinking and jokingly mused to myself, …. “What would kmall do?” When it hit me, it was like a lightning bolt! The more important question for the moment was, “What would Commsman do?”.

: - P

I had just been given a very pleasant invitation to mail the Geron Board and Executive Management Team a letter! What a great idea! : - D So I printed my email and read it over…… Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed to find at least several typos and uncorrected auto-corrections in my email pitch. It dawned on me to appreciate that this DIDN’T make it to the board, because it wasn’t really ready.

I proceeded to edit, sand, polish, buff, and gloss my email into a nicely presented letter. Here is the text copy of my final print:

“Dear Geron Board and Executive Management Team,

I became a Geron Investor in March of 2018, and I made numerous investment purchases through July of 2018. I like to think many of my purchases went straight into the ATM Shelf Offering, and therefore, Geron’s general cash fund directly supporting the development of Imetelstat.

I would like to thank Dr. John Chip Scarlett and the Board of Directors for their professionalism and honesty in dealing with the investors. I have listened to each investor call and have found John Scarlett’s messages to be fair and prescient. I admit to being slightly impatient when Chip would talk so thoroughly about the plan IF JNJ/Janssen elected not to continue the collaboration as I thought JNJ would be foolish not to continue. However, I have been of the opinion since EHA in June of 2018 that Geron shareholders would gain far more value in Imetelstat if they got back 100% of the rights than they ultimately would from a continued collaboration with JNJ. When the discontinuation occurred, I remained confident that the science would ultimately prevail, and that Imetelstat is indeed a very promising treatment option for so many people with serious blood cancers. After the announced appointments of Dr Gutierrez and Dr Rizo, I nearly doubled my position in Geron with renewed confidence in Imetelstat’s future success. I’m even more confident now after listening to the excellent presentation at the 2019 Needham Healthcare Conference. Chip really knocked it out of the park by handling the JNJ/Janssen decision question gracefully and skillfully!

I am more or less a regular Joe with no official background in Hematology or Oncology, but I have researched nearly everything I can on the development and clinical history of Imetelstat. I understand that you are researching possible paths forward for developing Imetelstat to treat Myelofibrosis, and I would like to propose or offer support for an option for IMBARK Phase III. While I understand the strategic importance of creating a safe niche in the MDS indication, I think it would be a mistake to play an equally conservative card in the MF indication again. The strategy of “playing it safe” is already covered in IMERGE by treating highly transfusion dependent patients who are ESA relapsed/refractory and L & H naïve. This is a wise path towards proving the value of Imetelstat to MDS patients. However, I think it would be strategically advantageous to use a more aggressive strategy with MF. Considering that the only approved therapy (Ruxolitinib), has well proven to only be a palliative measure at best, and in certain subsets of patients has proven to bestow an increased risk, I would like to propose a phase 3 structure that could yield conclusive evidence as to whether Imetelstat should become an approved therapy option for MF as a Frontline Therapy Option.

IMBARK Phase III - Head to Head Ruxolitinib vs. Imetelstat
- Randomized Study of Treatment Naïve patients diagnosed with MF

Group 1 - Ruxolitinib only

Group 2 - Imetelstat only

Group 3 - Ruxolitinib + Imetelstat

One immediate benefit is that no patients would have the risk of getting no treatment in a placebo group. They would either get the standard treatment they would otherwise get without entering the trial, the experimental treatment that shows much promise in preventing disease progression, or both the standard and the experimental treatment. From all my research, it has become clear to me that many treatment options are needed by the doctors and patients. The next benefit is that this trial design would give Imetelstat 2 out of 3 paths to proving it is worthy of FDA approval as a Frontline MF treatment option, and Meatloaf always said, “2 out of 3 ain’t bad!” Considering the data that shows Imetelstat’s clear efficacy in ET and Dr. Tefferi’s pilot study that included earlier stage MF patients who were Jakafi naïve, I am very confident that Imetelstat will show a clear advantage over just Jakafi alone – especially if an endpoint goal is to remain progression free!

My intentions with this suggestion are meant only in the most respectful way. Please bring this idea to the experts and the FDA for consideration. I realize that the actual trial design has an enormous amount of complex factors that must be planned for, but I trust Dr. Rizo and team Geron to work out these crucial fine print details. I truly hope that this basic concept for the framework can prove helpful as I believe it would be a very direct path towards uncovering truth through good science. I would be remiss if I failed to reveal that my Grandmother is currently living with MF, so this is a topic that is personal to me. I kindly thank you for reading my letter and your consideration of these ideas. Please keep up the good fight!



Very Respectfully,




“Commsman”
Xxx xx xxx xxx
Xxxxxx, XX xxxxx-xxxx

xxx-xxx-xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Independent Investor

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
- Albert Einstein “
Part 1

Commsman
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2019 11:35 am

Re: Update to Commsman's Pitcht for IMBARK PHASE III to the Geron Executive Management Team and Board of Directors

Post by Commsman » Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:38 am

Truthfully, there is no real material difference from my original e-mail, but I felt much more confident that the words I had chosen were what was presented, and that all the little mistakes were fixed. I was also able to see exactly how it would be presented to the intended recipients. Life doesn’t always give us 2nd chances, but when it does, it is best to maximize it!

I then decided I may as well send an individual letter to each Board Member and Executive Management Team Member, so I went online, and compiled this list:

Management: Dr. John A. Scarlett, Olivia K. Bloom, Melissa A. Kelly Behrs, Dr. Andrew J. Grethlein, Dr. Aleksandra Rizo, and Steven N. Rosenfield

Board of Directors: Dr. John A. Scarlett, Dawn C. Bir, Daniel M. Bradbury, Karin Eastham, Dr. V Bryan Lawlis, Dr. Susan M. Molineaux, Elizabeth G. O’Farrell, and Dr. Robert J. Spiegel.

When sensibly counting John Scarlett only once, this came to 13 letters needed to be printed, dated, and signed. A most unlucky number according to Gandalf! Who am I to argue with a wizard?!? I would need a 14th person to send a letter to! While looking over my list, I was actually surprised at the realization that Dr. Israel Gutierrez was missing. Aha! A perfect recipient for the lucky 14th message to round out my company of good old fashioned letters! Dr. Israel Gutierrez will be present at every single meeting between Geron and the FDA. I certainly wish HIM good luck!!!

Just as the hero in Tolkein’s world journeyed across Middle Earth in quest of smiting the evil dragon, Smaug, not with brawn, but with guile and cunning, so too does our own hero, kmall, traverse Middle Earth in our quest to shake the evil short cabal off of this very important drug, Imetelstat. Though kmall makes this particular part of the journey independently, he is not alone!

On Sunday, I printed, hand dated and signed, hand addressed, stamped, and mailed 14 business envelopes with a more polished message to convey my support for getting real medicine through real science to the MF patients who desperately need it. For a few of the members, I even put a nice special little hand-written note on nice stationary (if you must know, it was whale stationary, but I’ll keep the details of these messages private between myself and the intended recipients). It struck me that many of the addressees may be of a generation that would probably actually appreciate and respect a regular snail mail letter over an e-mail anyway! So I am grateful for the 2nd chance that the investor relations guy, Jacob Goldberger gave to me. I have no idea what, if anything, may become of my actions, but at least I did SOMETHING positive to help the cause!

I also noticed that I was extended a very courteous invitation to meet and deliver my message in person….. perhaps at the annual shareholder’s meeting on June 6? Currently, I have a scheduling conflict, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for an opportunity to make that work! I will post an update if there are any developments.

: - D

Respectfully,

Commsman

Part 2 of 2

kmall
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:57 pm

Re: Update to Commsman's Pitcht for IMBARK PHASE III to the Geron Executive Management Team and Board of Directors

Post by kmall » Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:19 pm

One suggestion C-man. If you can't make it to the meeting yourself on June 6th......send someone dressed as Gandalf....or better yet a Gandalf and a Meatloaf to hand deliver those letters to the BOD. I wish I still lived in Sausalito, I'd do it myself. Keep up the AWESOME work!!! You're inspiring me to ratchet up my game a notch. I sincerely hope they read and consider your proposition. Let us know, PLEASE!! Thanks for all your effort!!

Commsman
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2019 11:35 am

Re: Update to Commsman's Pitcht for IMBARK PHASE III to the Geron Executive Management Team and Board of Directors

Post by Commsman » Wed Apr 17, 2019 8:24 am

kmall that is just TOO funny!!! I could just see Meatloaf going in there with 3 envelopes and successfully delivering two!

: - D

Bwaahaha!!

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