Numbers Suck

[fldave007]

Unless we can do better with the numbers were sunk. We continue to move at a snails pace in terms of scrips. We need to create some buzz and the only way to do it is through better advertising. The ads need to center on no needles and need to be creative and humorous. This may be the only way for us to get traction. Come on Mike do something...

[scottmnkd]

Nov 9, 2018 8:26:43 GMT -5 fldave007 said:

Unless we can do better with the numbers were sunk. We continue to move at a snails pace in terms of scrips. We need to create some buzz and the only way to do it is through better advertising. The ads need to center on no needles and need to be creative and humorous. This may be the only way for us to get traction. Come on Mike do something...

I agree that the numbers suck. The good news is that Mannkind is no longer a one trick pony, however. Read the posts here and press releases, you'll see what I mean. We'll just need to be patient. 

[harryx1]

I think there's a clear trend & it's going in the right direction... 1st $4M+ month of revs and passed Snakeofi's highest monthly TRx!

[lakers]

Diabetes is a tough market, as we've seen several competitors start to dropout and layoff their employees. But we've made it through the worst, and as you can see, we've grown basically every quarter since we got the product back despite our limited financial position. We had a lot of things to cleanup that just took time, and we've been focused on high-value outcomes-based strategy versus a low-price volume strategy to grow Afrezza. This strategy is starting to pay off as we look at the payer landscape changing and our data readouts continue to demonstrate the unique profile of our product.

Keep in mind, our competition gives away $0.50 to $0.70 of every dollar spent in rebates to payers to ensure patient and provider access is difficult for new entrants like us. However, I believe we are moving to an outcomes-based healthcare system where interconnect care and outcomes will matter instead of volume of care.

www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4217121-mannkind-corporation-mnkd-ceo-michael-castagna-q3-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript

[lakers]

I will talk about prescriber data which is little more detailed that is given to the public for the Bloomberg Terminals. The data here is based on prescriber data. And we have see -- over the last five weeks, we have broken 600 and in few weeks we have come closed to 700 scripts a week.

We are breaking 685 and 670 numbers consistently now as we go forward. We look forward to breaking through 700. But what you can see year-to-date, we are up almost 70% growth versus the same period last year. And we have had double digit growth from Q1 to Q2 and Q2 to Q3. We continue to expect to see it further growing for years to come. Another question we often get is around our base business and our new member, Rx versus NRx.

I want to continue to show this data so that you guys have transparency that our base business continues to grow year-over-year and was up 74% year-to-date 2018 versus 2017 and our new NRx, which is new to brand treatment, is up 51% year-over-year. So, we continue to see very positive momentum. We continue to see great new prescribers joining us every week, and then make prescribing increasing.

We all want it faster. And in closing Q3, I want to let you know about several changes we made in Q4 that you should be aware of. One, we transitioned to a new head of sales who had deep diabetes background and relationships, who will be instrumental in helping us recruit and retain talent given the competitive job market.

Number two, we have hired several new marketers starting with Garrett, our Chief Marketing Officer, who we previously announced. Now that we have stabilized our company and our future prospects, she is working on a plan to put Afrezza back on track to becoming major growth driver over the coming years.

Three, we continue to be prudent with our capital allocation by holding openings and spend where appropriate as we rebalance our company priorities to include tremendous focus on the Technosphere platform balanced by driving Afrezza growth in the near term.

And finally, we are building out our program management office and business development functions as we believe these will be critical as we transition our company back to a growth engine.

[lakers]

Payer access discussions have been very positive. We expect that to continue to improve, and not only improve in a way that gives us more coverage, but improve in a way to actually remove some of the restrictions and friction that happens when a doctor or a patient go to get Afrezza. We expect to see reduction in prior authorizations as we go forward in 2019 and beyond.

We hopefully will complete pediatric study cohort 2 in early Q1. Our pipeline plans are in progress with several assets that are moving forward.

Our Afrezza international expansion is well underway, with Brazil expecting approval in Q4, and India progressing in a phase 3 trial for filing there, as well as Mexico and Canada we continue to work towards.

We continue to look at our pipeline and see what can we bring in and what can we out-license, and move assets faster down the road. And finally, our pediatric program, we believe, will be pivotal in the Type 1 market as we think about 30% of the patients in Type 1 will be eligible for Afrezza when we get this approval. We continue to file this product as we go forward.

[lakers]

Some of the lawsuits you're seeing on insulin and competitive practices going on with PBMs has really changed the contracting, I would say, barriers that we saw two years ago and even a year ago where payers are now able to -- probably more fairly evaluate the merits of a product on its individual attributes as opposed to I can't cover you because your competitor's blocking you. So I think a lot of that was happening over the last three years. I can tell you as we go forward we see that language being removed and we see those restrictions being slightly lifted as we go forward.

So now our ability to work with a payer to actually get on formulary has dramatically improved. Now it comes down to price and are you going to get the volume or how do you think about that. That's all about our strategy. But we're happy to engage -- as we put great deals together with Express Scripts and CVS and others. So we feel very good about our ability to get fair prices where the payers need something and we need something and I think there is an exchange of access for patients and we're moving those -- that friction that'll help you grow faster and we've seen that with our Express Scripts contract.

Cigna buying Aetna. Our total revenue within the Cigna health system now just doubled and so now when Cigna looks and says Afrezza is growing and we're not able to reduce the cost because we don't have a contract, that really changes the conversation, because we're not -- not that we weren't willing to contract and gain access, they weren't willing to entertain it, because their sales were too low and there was competitive restriction. So now that sales are growing and competitive restrictions are being removed, we feel very good about continued progress on that front. And fortunately competitors just don't move in a quarter, they move over years. And so we're going in the right direction, we've been in constant dialog, I know a lot of these guys personally and so we'll continue to make good progress as we go forward and I think that's good because doctors took time to learn. They're still taking that time to learn, but as they get more educated, they get that experience and contracts get easier and friction gets removed [indiscernible]. I look out over the coming years and I see nothing but barriers removed and continued growth by more and more prescribers.

[lakers]

If we see that we just cannot grow Afrezza, then yes, we're going to have to make some tough choices, but I don't think we have reached that point, I think of anything we think we have underinvested in the growth of Afrezza and how do we invest more and how do we balance that need with the pipeline, and that's really where we are. And so, can we bring more external innovation or can we get another compound done, bring in more money, but as you look out in the two years, three years, royalty start kicking in, and that provides a lot of cash income on top of Afrezza growth.

We shall be spending the money we're spending on Afrezza, but I think we believe this will be a tremendous growth driver for the company, our shareholders and ultimately benefits the society at the same time