MannKind Corp. (MNKD)

[TREND1]

A different point of view ......to keep board balanced
Diabetes Analyst: Sanofi CEO's Firing May Spell Trouble for MannKind Afrezza Partnership

By: Adam Feuerstein Follow | 11/04/14 - 01:40 PM EST

MannKind (MNKD) used its quarterly conference call Monday night to tamp down any concerns about the firing of Sanofi (SNY) CEO Chris Viehbacher causing problems for the Afrezza diabetes partnership ahead of the expected first quarter 2015 launch.


Not everyone shares MannKind's confidence. Diabetic Investor's David Kliff, a longtime Afrezza skeptic, believes Viehbacher was the driving force behind the MannKind partnership and pushed the deal against the wishes of others at Sanofi who didn't want anything to do with the inhaled insulin device. Now that Viehbacher is out at Sanofi, Kliff says the Afrezza commercial launch might be in trouble even before it starts.

Kliff, writing today to his subscribers:


With Viehbacher now gone and Sanofi expected to bring in a change agent with diabetes experience it's quite possible that this new person could reexamine the deal and decide it's just not worth the effort, not to mention the capital investment needed. A critical date here is November 20 when the company holds their analyst day, a day which according to MannKind management Afrezza will be big part of, the star of the show so to speak. Many observers believe that Sanofi will announce Viehbacher's replacement as early as this week. Given the timing of all these events it will be interesting to see if the new person, only in charge a short time, makes the first of several changes and knocks Afrezza out if it's starring role.