Tada,

Good post! I do have reservations on this part though "It takes about a year to get word from the patent office that you have your patent or not. Having this potential partner wait for conformation of that patent before committing to spend a quarter of a billion dollars to further this science makes total sense to me."

US patents take anywhere from two years to ten years depending on the field. I have three granted patents on spinal cord stimulators ( filed in last ten years)  and they took anywhere from three to six years for a judgement. In situations like this most big MNCs have their own patent attorneys which can give them a fairly accurate assessment of the probability of the patent being granted. In fact if the company that has applied for the patent gives them permission the MNC can directly talk to the patent examiners and get  sense of where the patent is headed.