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Post by sportsrancho on Feb 1, 2020 10:22:39 GMT -5
John Kastanes ...can a different CEO increase Afrezza sales and advance the pipeline? If so, how would he/she accomplish that with limited resources?
BullMarket.. @johnkastanes for 1 motivate the marketing staff on hand to do something..3 or 4 social media posts every quarter is useless. Several people in marketing literally doing nothing! Why?? If they were, we would see their communications and efforts. It’s just not happening. One great example is #inhalemyinsulin , which completely fell of the map after couple of months...Again, why??
lgotcthis.. For one I would get rid of our overpriced HR people person and use that money for salespeople. 2 do a better job with our marketing people. 3 reduce the board down to 3 people. 4 focus on the pipeline.
Barnstormer....Cut some dead weight starting with Tross, Mc Cauley and Alinaya. Replace them with half the salary, twice the talent. Believe me they are out there. There are CEO's out there with more talent and presence than Mike. He has stated during several investor presentations he has been getting calls from potential partners, but hasn't landed any. He should be on the phone looking for them, not waiting until they call. Go back to the UAE and get a deal done. Mike has said for the last 2 years Mexico, China and Canada were areas MNKD would expand into yet we have nothing. Stop strangling SP with extended warrants because your targets for covenants in the last financing package was mis-calculated. The list goes on and on.
golfeveryday... executive pay reduced, reduce total # of employees as company infrastructure for what it actually is does not align, fire half the reps, hire Diabetes Educators (DE), team 1 DE and 1 rep in top 35 territories, call on docs, DE’s conduct inhaled insulin clinics in pharmacy to educate and switch patients, offer DE services for docs in territory, implement social media influencer campaign, formally implement distribution partnership with Vdex in some way or a step in the right direction would be to vocalize MNKD support for their mission and focus on Afrezza and give them samples etc to achieve their mission which only helps MNKD, partner Afrezza with BP even if they have to give away more than they want, a 500-1000 person sales team will flip the switch on Afrezza and give MNKD the chance to focus on TS, conduct P1’s on as many TS pipeline opportunities as possible, seek licensing partnerships.
If MC can’t close some sort of deal with BP for Afrezza then he is just simply not good at that part of the job. Imo, his ego is getting in the way and he is not thinking long term, even if he has to give away more than he wants.
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Post by nylefty on Feb 1, 2020 12:27:46 GMT -5
Where do all these quotes come from?
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Post by sportsrancho on Feb 1, 2020 12:32:22 GMT -5
Where do all these quotes come from? ST... but they are also members here. |
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Post by akemp3000 on Feb 1, 2020 17:04:17 GMT -5
It's not difficult to criticize and guess what might work. I wonder if any have executive experience in an emerging biotech. I believe Kastanes is a pharmacist with a PharmD.
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Post by mango on Feb 1, 2020 17:18:16 GMT -5
It's not difficult to criticize and guess what might work. I wonder if any have executive experience in an emerging biotech. I believe Kastanes is a pharmacist with a PharmD. I remember Kastanes saying he was a physicist...? |
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Post by mytakeonit on Feb 1, 2020 17:32:28 GMT -5
I thought it was psychopathcist  But, that's mytakeonit |
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Post by sportsrancho on Feb 1, 2020 17:34:42 GMT -5
All three of the posters that responded to John‘s question have extensive experience in marketing. All with large publicly traded companies.
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Post by sportsrancho on Feb 1, 2020 17:51:07 GMT -5
From John....
“During the fourth quarterly call, if Castagna doesn’t announce pipeline advancement besides Afrezza and TreT, it implies noone is interested in Technosphere. It is my belief that Technosphere’s potential will be realized when applied with new chemical or molecular entities, not approved pharmaceutical ingredients. Technosphere adds significant costs; trying to compete in the generic space without superior efficacy seem futile.
I am an investor that initiall believed Technosphere was the goose that would produce golden eggs. Over time it has become apparent Technosphere in MannKind’s control will never see its true potential.
Those that believe Afrezza and TreT will make MannKind cash flow positive without additional loans don’t have a good grasp of finances.”
These posters were responding to him that something could be done.
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Post by peppy on Feb 1, 2020 18:08:29 GMT -5
It's not difficult to criticize and guess what might work. I wonder if any have executive experience in an emerging biotech. I believe Kastanes is a pharmacist with a PharmD. I remember Kastanes saying he was a physicist...? bus driver |
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Post by mytakeonit on Feb 1, 2020 18:31:06 GMT -5
Yes peppy ... that's the picture I remember.
But, that's mytakeonit
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Post by mango on Feb 1, 2020 19:19:26 GMT -5
Regardless of his prior professional endeavours before committing to SA full-time, he certainly has not stopped being the John Cast Stains that I remember. Soft bashing with a spoonful of FUD.
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Post by matt on Feb 2, 2020 11:18:14 GMT -5
It is time to fish or cut bait on Afrezza. Five years post-launch there really is no excuse for scripts that number under 800 per week. Yes, Sanofi was not an ideal partner, and yes, insurance coverage stinks, and yes, Lilly and Novo will do everything they can to maintain their market share in prandial insulins. That is the competitive market in which MNKD operates and none of this should have been a surprise to anybody that understands how the real world works.
Afrezza has proven to be a money pit and continues to be a money pit. Either sell it for whatever it will bring or abandon it. I know the thought of abandoning the product is anathema to most readers that struggle with diabetes or know somebody that does, but the only alternative (other than selling it) is to continually subsidize the treatment with your stock purchases. Growth is far slower than it needs to be for this to be a economically viable product in the market. That would be a shame to lose the drug, but Afrezza would not be the first superior product to fail in the market.
If you think Technosphere is the future, then reposition the company into drug delivery since there has been some success with that strategy. That requires a complete rethink of priorities and taking an axe to a lot of corporate spending, including the executive team. A small but nimble drug delivery company looks very different than the Mannkind of today. To address akemp3000's question, yes I have been CEO of an emerging biotech and have had to make the hard decisions when I was put into the job, but the results were worth it in the long run. The process is not nice, it is not painless for the current employees, but a realistic assessment of what the viable options are is sorely needed. Most of what are proposed as options are nice to think about, and are even well-intentioned, but they are not viable in the highly competitive pharma world.
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Post by Chris-C on Feb 2, 2020 12:42:22 GMT -5
It is time to fish or cut bait on Afrezza. Five years post-launch there really is no excuse for scripts that number under 800 per week. Yes, Sanofi was not an ideal partner, and yes, insurance coverage stinks, and yes, Lilly and Novo will do everything they can to maintain their market share in prandial insulins. That is the competitive market in which MNKD operates and none of this should have been a surprise to anybody that understands how the real world works. Afrezza has proven to be a money pit and continues to be a money pit. Either sell it for whatever it will bring or abandon it. I know the thought of abandoning the product is anathema to most readers that struggle with diabetes or know somebody that does, but the only alternative (other than selling it) is to continually subsidize the treatment with your stock purchases. Growth is far slower than it needs to be for this to be a economically viable product in the market. That would be a shame to lose the drug, but Afrezza would not be the first superior product to fail in the market. If you think Technosphere is the future, then reposition the company into drug delivery since there has been some success with that strategy. That requires a complete rethink of priorities and taking an axe to a lot of corporate spending, including the executive team. A small but nimble drug delivery company looks very different than the Mannkind of today. To address akemp3000's question, yes I have been CEO of an emerging biotech and have had to make the hard decisions when I was put into the job, but the results were worth it in the long run. The process is not nice, it is not painless for the current employees, but a realistic assessment of what the viable options are is sorely needed. Most of what are proposed as options are nice to think about, and are even well-intentioned, but they are not viable in the highly competitive pharma world. Thanks for your insights. With utmost respect, I continue my skepticism that critics on a message board with limited access to facts are in a better position to propose solutions than people on the front lines with access to such facts. We cannot (fairly) assume that leadership has not considered the very strategies proposed. Regarding your observation about real world competition, it appears that the board never imagined that they would be running a sales operation, and I seem to recall that the initial plan was to license to others, supply product, and create a pipeline of other drugs using their novel TS technology. The impression that the board apparently had no plan for the unthinkable contingency that occurred was, if true, a serious failure by the board, (in my opinion). It certainly took courage to go down the current road, but perhaps it was ultimately a Hobson’s choice? And perhaps, deals have and are being discussed as we speak? Given the challenges we’ve all agreed exist, selling Afrezza now for a price approaching its potential value represents a monumental challenge to management. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and our wits about us. GLTAL, Chris C |
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Post by nylefty on Feb 2, 2020 13:11:45 GMT -5
Regardless of his prior professional endeavours before committing to SA full-time, he certainly has not stopped being the John Cast Stains that I remember. Soft bashing with a spoonful of FUD. From TipRanks: Blogger Profile John Kastanes Seeking Alpha Financial Blogger Ranked #6,849 out of 7,127 Bloggers on TipRanks (#12,298 out of 12,976 overall experts) John Kastanes's Performance Success Rate 22% 2 out of 9 ratings were successful Average Return -25.7% www.tipranks.com/bloggers/john-kastanes |
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Post by lennymnkd on Feb 2, 2020 13:18:22 GMT -5
Is it too simplistic/ but if 70 reps can sell X amount of scripts .. then 140 reps can sell 2x X and so on ... an it’s off to the races ! Or is that just too easy ....
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