Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
As difficult it might be to believe that megabull "mnholdem" posted this on the proboards MNKD forum:
"I do have a difficult time explaining how MannKind’s former Chief Commercial Officer[Castagna], who was selected by the Board of Directors for a CEO position in spite of his lackluster results, is still struggling with the effective marketing of Afrezza.
I happen to agree with CEO Castagna that scripts should be in tens of thousands, but I have yet to see any sign whatsoever that he can deliver market acceptance. He may have sold himself to the majority owners and the BoD but he has not sold himself to me or a majority of shareholders.
I’m not prepared to give Castagna full credit for the Kendall hiring either. Castagna was the closing pitcher on that win.
Was he so arrogant that he believed his marketing skills & ideas alone were sufficient to get the job done (via his hiring of specialists) and only now after nearly three years of getting control of Afrezza back from Sanofi he’s putting together a qualified marketing team?
Perhaps he blamed his lack of success on the previous CEO. But now, as CEO, all failure and success must be laid on his shoulders. I believe Afrezza will eventually become successful because of the Kendall hiring. The new marketing team is an unknown at this point. But Castagna, unfortunately, still remains a big unknown to shareholders and to Wall Street."
...but he really did.
"Matt_pk" on SA commented:
"Directors have a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interests of the corporation. That is a fine point of law frequently misunderstood; the fiduciary obligation is to the corporation and not to the shareholders.
When a corporation enters the "zone of insolvency" sometimes directors need to act in the interest of creditors even though that may be detrimental to the interests of shareholders, and failure to act can give rise to a legal cause of action.
In theory, failure to act should be covered by D&O insurance. Directors would be personally liable (in most states) for unpaid wages and payroll taxes.
The problem with running the tank dry is that it almost 100% insures a Chapter 7 filing instead of a chance to reorganize under Chapter 11.
A reorg requires cash to operate during the pendency of any case plus more cash to cover all the legal and accounting fees.
That is where debtor-in-possession financing comes in, but since all the good assets are security for Deerfield the lender would have to have the court "prime the lien" in order for the DIP finance to get priority over Deerfield.
That is a very difficult challenge in the best of cases but is probably close to impossible in this one."
638,000 shares? Maybe they should just start trading every other day.
"NEW SCRIPT NUMBERS:
Nrx = 273
Refills = 261
Trx = 534
Revenues = 693,000
LAST WEEK:
Nrx = 295
Refills = 291
Trx = 586
Revenues = 770,000"
Still nothing on script numbers, per "sportsrancho" on proboards:
"Someone has the numbers because they come out Thursday night they’re just not posting them. We may have to wait till earnings"
Don't know -- apparently running very late this am.
And Mannkind is selling -- stock, that is. Between now and the end of September, MNKD needs at least 28 million dollars. To continue until the end of the year, they need about an additional 30 million.
Money doesn't grow on trees, but a printing press can crank out stock certificates forever and ever and ever, etc, etc, etc...
I actually feel sorry for the new reps because now they'll forever have to explain why they stooped so low as to take a job with such an obvious loser as Mannkind -- "Well, it because Barnum and Bailey wasn't in town, so there wasn't any other shit available to shovel."
Spencer Osborne update:
"What we know....
At this time MannKind is likely sitting on about $13 million in cash (unless it has been using ATM facility
At this time we know MannKind is in discussions with Deerfield. MannKind owes Deerfield $3 million on August 31st. The problem is that the agreed upon price for using shares is at $1.85 or so.
At this point MannKind is well below the required $20 million in cash that it needs to have on September 30th....just 5 or 6 weeks away.
This means:
1. Mannkind must either lower the share price for converting the $3 million in debt, or negotiate to extend it again.
2. Deerfield will be wanting to know if MannKind is going to remain in compliance by the end of September.
Possibilities
1. MannKind comes to terms with Deerfield loan money with converts attached. This loan will be in several tranchs and will likely have some requirements that could be tied to things like sales performance
2. Find another lender that is willing to handle the balance of Deerfield debt and then offer a loan of its own. Deerfield would still have some covenants because it holds milestones that could be worth up to $75 million.
The issue is that the company needs a cash runway that allows it to shift how it is going about marketing Afrezza. If it is only getting finances that cover a quarter or two, it can not really change the current methods which are delivering growth much more slowly than desired.
As much as some may want to get out from under Deerfield, they may be the best available solution at this juncture. MannKind wants to push principal payments out a number of years to gain some breathing room. That desire could prove to be one that make the terms a bit more stringent.
The bottom line is that MannKind is taking this down to the proverbial wire, which itself is an indication that the terms they are being offered are not as favorable as some may want to see."
Just "sayin" that MNKD currently has 15 openings listed on its website for sales reps -- 4 date back to April, six date back to June, and the rest are July and August. Why?
Those are open because no experienced rep is willing to sign up to sell a drug that practically no one wants to buy or to work for a company that limps from one quarter to the next teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
On the other hand, new grads with BAs in political science, with no sales experience, with no diabetes experience, and with nil pharma experience and whose expertise lies only in six years of babysitting are no doubt thrilled that any pharma on the planet would hire them.
Is it going to make it to 700,000 shares today? Why even bother to open it for trading?
And sometimes having lots of connections from being been a diabetes rep for, say, Sanofi, makes it a lot easier to get in the door.
Personally, I'd bet on connections before "eye candy." So would Mannkind.
Unfortunately, Mannkind can't attract the kinds of reps that are already well connected, so are stuck with people with six years of babysitting experience.
"What a delightful review:
https://dlife.com/down-the-inhaled-insulin-path-the-road-to-approval-and-acceptance/
"Down The Inhaled Insulin Path: The Road To Approval And Acceptance"
Say what:
"...a Sanofi spokeswoman who said that of the 6,000 patients prescribed Afrezza since its launch, only 35% stayed on the treatment at that time."
No wonder Sanofi bolted at the first opportunity. And there's more:
"According to Dr. Steven Chessler, associate professor division of endocrinology, at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and a practicing endocrinologist, inhaled insulin is rarely used in his experience and its role remains unclear.
'The ubiquity of insulin pens has made injections convenient,” Chessler tells dLife, “and either way you have to carry something around — either the pen and needles or the insulin inhaler apparatus.'
He cites an important reason many physicians don’t use it is concern regarding introducing insulin into the lungs and concerns about effects it may have on the lung tissue.
'I have never had a patient come to me on inhaled insulin,' Chessler says, 'meaning that their previous physicians did not use it, nor have I started patients on it.'"
Well, isn't THAT just disappointing! Oh, but there's MORE:
"In Sélam’s opinion, inhaled insulin stands “no-where” today compared to other products.
'Almost no diabetologist prescribes inhaled insulin,' Sélam states, 'because of no or minimal advertising by sponsors, and because the FDA approval stipulates lots of limitations including non-COPD patients and needs for frequent pulmonary function tests.'
He also says inhaled daily insulin doses adjustments are awkward for the patient with the current device."
Well, damn, Dr. Selam, don't sugarcoat it or anything!
And MNKD bulls wonder why net revenues are so miserable! It's practically a WONDER that they exist at ALL!"
"A most INFORMATIVE conference at the EASD meeting:
http://abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/4612/session/89
"Faster acting insulins: state of the art"
Hmmmmmmmmmmm:
811 - BioChaperone technology enables the development of pramlintide-prandial insulin combinations
812 - Glycaemic control with fast-acting insulin aspart according to dose adjustment method in type 1 diabetes: a post hoc analysis of onset 8
813 - Improved post-prandial blood glucose excursions with Technosphere inhaled insulin compared to aspart in adult patients with type 1 diabetes: STAT study intention to treat analysis
814 - Ultra rapid lispro (URLi) reduces postprandial glucose excursions vs lispro in patients with type 2 diabetes at multiple meal-to-dose timing intervals
815 - Pooled analysis of clinical trials investigating the pharmacokinetics (PK) of ultra-rapid insulin BioChaperone Lispro vs lispro in subjects with type 1 and type 2 diabetes
816 - BioChaperone 222, the new excipient enabling the ultra-rapid BioChaperone Lispro formulation, is completely absorbed and rapidly excreted after subcutaneous injection
817 - Ultra rapid lispro (URLi) shows faster insulin absorption vs lispro during insulin pump (CSII) use in patients with type 1 diabetes
818 - Better postprandial glucose control with BioChaperone Combo than with lispro Mix25 or separate glargine and lispro (G+L) administrations in subjects with type 2 diabetes
Seems like MNKD's little pilot study is rather OUTNUMBERED -- doesn't it?"
I don't think MNKD wanted to hire her; they had no choice but to hire her since they are unable to find anyone with real pharmaceutical sales experience.
Go look at the employment opportunities on Mannkind's website. They have 15 open positions. Four have been listed since April and six since June. What's the problem? The world is awash in unemployed diabetes sales reps since the layoffs by the big pharmas.
Mannkind simply can't find experienced reps willing to go out and try to sell what is obviously a complete failure.
Well, first, note that the idiots who wrote that listing apparently don't realize they're doing a phase 4 trial and not a phase 3 -- that alone should tell you something about their expertise.
Second, despite the title, it is not "early insulin therapy." It is insulin therapy started after at least 6 months on the standard protocol has failed to produce adequate control.
Third, adding a rapid acting insulin is already the very last thing done when the standard protocol has failed to achieve control -- so all they are doing is simply following the protocol and substituting afrezza for the RAAs.
Fourth, adding any rapid acting insulin has already been demonstrated to help lower A1c when the standard protocol has failed. RAAs are always used last because they promote further weight gain and the risk of hypoglycemia is much higher.
So what is to be gained by showing it again for a different kind of RAA?
Finally, note that afrezza in trial 175 for type 2 diabetics, similar to RAAs, required HUGE doses:
"The average daily dose of study treatment was 92.3 U for the Afrezza TI Gen2 group..."
...and, similar to the RAAs, afrezza produced a much higher rate of hypoglycemia -- a 67% incidence rate for all types of hypoglycemia.
So no one that matters -- physicians and insurers -- will care about the results of this latest trial.
Well, are you familiar with the old saying about turds rolling downhill?
2:15 and 640,000 shares traded per yahoo? will it even come close to a million by closing time?
No, Mannkind's only "mission" is to line management's pockets with investors' gold. They care whether diabetics live or die only to the extent it affects their own personal cash flow.
Giving away up to a year's worth of afrezza to attract customers is simply a last resort to improve the pathetic script numbers ahead of whatever massive secondary they're planning.
But funny, isn't it, how the downside always seems to win out?
"Per "Cherise/LADA" responding to someone with prior authorization problems:
?Have you tried MannKind cares? I believe they are providing Afrezza at no cost up to a year unless they can get a PA prior before the year is up.
— Cherise Shockley (@BonafideCherise) August 20, 2018
Mannkind doesn't have the time or money to be a training ground for diabetes sales reps.
I think Mannkind knows this, but she was simply the best they could do. Highly qualified reps probably wouldn't touch a Mannkind sales job with a ten foot dreamboat.
For crying out loud, she just graduated a few months ago from the University of Alabama with a BA in "Business and Political Science."
No sales experience.
No diabetes experience.
Only pharma exposure was doing who knows what for 3 months as a Sanofi intern.
Her most extensive experience is 6 years working as a babysitter.
Sorry, but right now she is definitely not what Mannkind needs out on the road pushing afrezza.
MNKD is hardly in a position where it can afford to be offering totally inexperienced college grads places where they can hone any "entrepreneurial spirit" they might possess.
MNKD needs reps with lots of medical connections and lots of experience in selling diabetes drugs.
True, but I think the point was that this woman was the best that Mannkind could find, and her resume doesn't exactly inspire confidence now -- does it? Especially considering the rather woeful state of current script counts.
"Simply too HILARIOUS! One of the ten latest hotshot reps that Castagna was boasting about during the CC:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/reagan-mitchell-3b3552b8/
"Experience
MannKind Corporation Territory Business Manager
Dates Employed Aug 2018 – Present Employment Duration 1 mo
Location Waco, Texas Area
Alpha Management Partners
Dates Employed May 2017 – Aug 2017 Employment Duration4 mos
Location Tuscaloosa, Alabama Area
Sanofi Marketing Intern
Dates Employed Jun 2015 – Aug 2015 Employment Duration 3 mos
Location Bridgewater, New Jersey
Reagan Mitchell's Babysitting Solutions Babysitter
Dates Employed 2009 – 2015 Employment Duration 6 yrs
Location New Jersey
Milan Rose LLC Photographer, Editor, & Secretary
Dates Employed Oct 2013 – Jan 2014 Employment Duration4 mos
Camp Johnsonburg Counselor & Lifeguard
Dates Employed Apr 2012 – Aug 2013 Employment Duration 1 yr 5 mos
Teaberry’s Tea Room Waitress
Dates Employed Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 Employment Duration 1 yr 1 mo"
So Reagan has SIX years as a BABYSITTER? And ZERO sales experience? And ZERO diabetes experience? And her ONLY pharm experience was as an "intern" for 3 MONTHS at Sanofi -- AFTER which apparently THEY didn't hire her?????
Uhhhhh....hang on a second:
HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW!!!!
Oh, man! Is that RICH or WHAT!!! And then BAGHOLDERS wonder WHY Mannkind can't hardly GIVE afizzle away! Go FIGURE!
ROFLMAO!!!!"
Yeah, something about cash dwindling makes me think of dilution:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4200380-mannkind-afrezza-scripts-still-500s-cash-balance-dwindles
"Summary
Afrezza scripts for week ending August 10th were just under 590.
Estimated cash balance as of August 10th is $15.7 million.
20 weeks left to deliver $12.3 million in net revenue in order to hit guidance."
Need 3 mil for Deerfield, 2.77 mil for Amphastar, and a 20 mil cash balance all within the next 6 weeks.
Better get the old stock printing press warmed up.
No, make that down another 6%.
Yeah, tell the market -- down another 5% around 1 pm.
"The EXCITEMENT is almost too MUCH to BEAR -- NEW SCRIPT NUMBERS:
Nrx = 295
Refills = 291
Trx = 586
Revenues = 770,000
LAST WEEK:
Nrx = 273
Refills = 275
Trx = 548
Revenues = 727,000
...or NOT!!!!
ROFLMAO!!!!"
Well, this is interesting:
"...requires the Company to maintain at least $20.0 million in cash and cash equivalents as of the end of each fiscal quarter through December 31, 2018 and $25.0 million for fiscal quarters thereafter."
I recall Deerfield changing the requirement from 25 mil to 20 mil cash at the end of each quarter, but that's the first time I notices that it goes back to 25 mil in 2019.
Yeah, they have a lot of confidence in MNKD's future.
Must be! 300,000 shares for a full day's trading? Is that close to some sort of record low?
Seriously? 4 hours into trading and 190,000 shares have traded? Just take it out and shoot it already.
Hardly a hundred thousand MNKD shares traded almost 2 hours in? Are the boiler rooms on strike or what?
Too hilarious:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alivia-rawls-24160b143/
"Alivia Rawls
Social Media Coordinator at KemPharm, Inc."
While I admit I could probably take a liking to her coordinating MY media, I just have to wonder about her qualifications:
"Experience
KemPharm, Inc. Social Media Coordinator
Dates Employed Mar 2017 – Present Employment Duration1 yr 6 mos
Location Celebration, Fl
Walt Disney World Internship
Dates Employed Aug 2016 – Jan 2017 Employment Duration 6 mos
Location Orlando, Florida
Education
University of Oklahoma
Degree NameBachelor of Science - BS Field Of Study Criminal Justice
Dates attended or expected graduation 2017 – 2018"
So she studied criminal justice for a year(?), spent 6 months as a Disney intern and NOW she's the "Social Media Coordinator" at Kempharm????
Hmmmmmmmmmm....is it just ME or does her BOYFRIEND:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1864112083640113&set=a.114005575317448.17940.100001240170600&type=3&theater
...bear a rather striking resemblance to Kempharm's CEO:
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/877584483066810368/-uR8VVSz_400x400.jpg
Ahhhhhhhh...probably just a COINCIDENCE, huh?
Over 250,000 shares the first hour and down another 4 cents -- new 52 week low isn't too far away.
Wow...down 3 cents on less than 800,000 shares. That's what happens when you can't pay the boiler room fees.
I don't know why but I just get a kick out of reading this over and over:
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3378474-mannkind-25-percent
"Aug. 3, 2018 3:15 PM ET
MannKind (MNKD -25.3%) is down on more than a 4x surge in volume. Shares have lost almost half their value since June."
I'd say calling it "going back up" is too kind -- given the volume, I'd say it's more like limping back up to still finish down over 2%.