Thoughts and Takeaways From The Annual Shareholders Meeting
May 17, 2018 8:16:27 GMT -5
liane, BD, and 66 more like this
Post by centralcoastinvestor on May 17, 2018 8:16:27 GMT -5
I went into this year’s ASM with modest expectations not expecting much in the way of Q & A but excited to hear from management in person. I can say that I came away from the meeting pumped. Yep pumped. The meeting was much more than I hoped it would be.
Upon arriving, I could see that MannKind staff was ready to have guests. There was a nice assortment of refreshments including pastries for shareholders. They had several different tables set up for shareholders to ask questions of MannKind staff. One table had the head of MannKind Cares, another table was for talking about the science of Afrezza and a room was set up to show off the Bluehale technology. I personally got to try using a dreamboat with the Bluehale attachment. The display for the Bluehale results instantly showed how well I did on inhaling from the dreamboat. Very cool. I arrived about 40 minutes before the start of the meeting and didn’t stop talking to staff until the meeting started at 10:00 am. (I will come earlier next year.). There were only a few seats available. I estimate 40 to 50 shareholders. MannKind staff stood in the back to listen in on the meeting.
The official business portion of the meeting only took about 15 minutes. However, the next 30 minutes provided good information from CEO Mike Castagna and each of the executive team. I was impressed with the cohesiveness of the executive team. Especially the effort that Dr. Kendall (Chief Medical Officer) and Pat (Chief Commercial Officer) are putting into making sure the science of Afrezza backs what the sales force is pitching to doctors.
So here are some major takeaways from my perspective:
1. The Question and Answer session far exceeded my expectations. In past ASMs, it was my understanding that the Q & A sessions were very brief and would leave shareholders frustrated. This time, Mike and the team took every question for at least 40 minutes. It was awesome. To me they showed confidence and excitement about the company. I came away from the Q & A session with the sense that management was very confident. They had a swagger of “bring it” when it came to any question.
2. Mike C. is very aware of the script issue. Mike essentially said that he knows that people are frustrated to see 500 scripts a week. He is too. He wants to see 5000 scripts a week. He said that last year was about fixing many issues at MannKind. This year is not about fixing, it is about executing on a well prepared plan.
3. Dr. Kendall was amazing to listen to. He truly believes that Afrezza should be the standard of care. He said the current method (standard of care) for treating diabetes at meal time is ancient, barbaric and unpredictable. He said this needs to change. Afrezza is the answer.
4. Dr. Kendall said that when he was first investigating what was out there in terms of publications for Afrezza he came across 13 publications on pubmed. He said that is not nearly enough. He stated that MannKind now has approximately 16 additional publications that will be coming out in the months ahead. This practice of constantly putting the science of Afrezza out in front of the medical community will be intentional and ongoing.
5. Dr. Kendall spoke about the existing data from the 65 completed studies on Afrezza and Technosphere utilizing 5000 patients. (You could feel his excitement when he talked about this.). He said that these studies provided extremely valuable and usable data. He gave the analogy that his team was currently mining this data and had already found valuable “veins of gold.” I believe those findings resulted in the late breaking poster that was accepted at the ADA regarding hypoglycemia. Dr. Kendall feels that there is plenty of data already available to his team to move forward on many different fronts without the need for new studies.
6. Mike and Dr. Kendall plan on being at every major scientific event in the diabetes world this year. Because the science of Afrezza is amazing, and the Diabetes community needs to hear about it .... a lot.
7. It is possible that MannKind and Afrezza may appear on TV talk show at some point in the future. However, those type of things are very fluid so that may not come to pass. But MannKind is open to those opportunities if they present themselves.
There are many other takeaways that I am not remembering at the moment but I am sure the other ProBoards members that were there will add to this thread. Also, I have recalled what transpired to the best of my recollection. For other ProBoard members that were there, please feel free to provide corrections or additional info for any topic I mentioned.
Final thoughts, MannKind management has a ton of confidence, excitement and energy. It really showed at the Annual Shareholders Meeting. The teamwork and comradery on the executive team was palpable. They are ready to “rock and roll.”
Upon arriving, I could see that MannKind staff was ready to have guests. There was a nice assortment of refreshments including pastries for shareholders. They had several different tables set up for shareholders to ask questions of MannKind staff. One table had the head of MannKind Cares, another table was for talking about the science of Afrezza and a room was set up to show off the Bluehale technology. I personally got to try using a dreamboat with the Bluehale attachment. The display for the Bluehale results instantly showed how well I did on inhaling from the dreamboat. Very cool. I arrived about 40 minutes before the start of the meeting and didn’t stop talking to staff until the meeting started at 10:00 am. (I will come earlier next year.). There were only a few seats available. I estimate 40 to 50 shareholders. MannKind staff stood in the back to listen in on the meeting.
The official business portion of the meeting only took about 15 minutes. However, the next 30 minutes provided good information from CEO Mike Castagna and each of the executive team. I was impressed with the cohesiveness of the executive team. Especially the effort that Dr. Kendall (Chief Medical Officer) and Pat (Chief Commercial Officer) are putting into making sure the science of Afrezza backs what the sales force is pitching to doctors.
So here are some major takeaways from my perspective:
1. The Question and Answer session far exceeded my expectations. In past ASMs, it was my understanding that the Q & A sessions were very brief and would leave shareholders frustrated. This time, Mike and the team took every question for at least 40 minutes. It was awesome. To me they showed confidence and excitement about the company. I came away from the Q & A session with the sense that management was very confident. They had a swagger of “bring it” when it came to any question.
2. Mike C. is very aware of the script issue. Mike essentially said that he knows that people are frustrated to see 500 scripts a week. He is too. He wants to see 5000 scripts a week. He said that last year was about fixing many issues at MannKind. This year is not about fixing, it is about executing on a well prepared plan.
3. Dr. Kendall was amazing to listen to. He truly believes that Afrezza should be the standard of care. He said the current method (standard of care) for treating diabetes at meal time is ancient, barbaric and unpredictable. He said this needs to change. Afrezza is the answer.
4. Dr. Kendall said that when he was first investigating what was out there in terms of publications for Afrezza he came across 13 publications on pubmed. He said that is not nearly enough. He stated that MannKind now has approximately 16 additional publications that will be coming out in the months ahead. This practice of constantly putting the science of Afrezza out in front of the medical community will be intentional and ongoing.
5. Dr. Kendall spoke about the existing data from the 65 completed studies on Afrezza and Technosphere utilizing 5000 patients. (You could feel his excitement when he talked about this.). He said that these studies provided extremely valuable and usable data. He gave the analogy that his team was currently mining this data and had already found valuable “veins of gold.” I believe those findings resulted in the late breaking poster that was accepted at the ADA regarding hypoglycemia. Dr. Kendall feels that there is plenty of data already available to his team to move forward on many different fronts without the need for new studies.
6. Mike and Dr. Kendall plan on being at every major scientific event in the diabetes world this year. Because the science of Afrezza is amazing, and the Diabetes community needs to hear about it .... a lot.
7. It is possible that MannKind and Afrezza may appear on TV talk show at some point in the future. However, those type of things are very fluid so that may not come to pass. But MannKind is open to those opportunities if they present themselves.
There are many other takeaways that I am not remembering at the moment but I am sure the other ProBoards members that were there will add to this thread. Also, I have recalled what transpired to the best of my recollection. For other ProBoard members that were there, please feel free to provide corrections or additional info for any topic I mentioned.
Final thoughts, MannKind management has a ton of confidence, excitement and energy. It really showed at the Annual Shareholders Meeting. The teamwork and comradery on the executive team was palpable. They are ready to “rock and roll.”
