bkdmd
Researcher
Posts: 79
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Post by bkdmd on Jul 23, 2020 8:50:40 GMT -5
I wish I had a job where I could deliver literally nothing of value and keep getting paid. MC I am talking to you. and on top of that take a raise.
MC's number one priority is MC. It isn't this company. It isn't shareholders. MC is only concerned with keeping the gravy train going for himself as long as he can.
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Post by matt on Jul 23, 2020 9:15:49 GMT -5
I think folks, generally speaking, overestimate the influence of certain individuals and underestimate the power of the organizations they came from. Bozo the clown could be in charge of diabetes marketing for Eli Lilly and that company would still produce decent numbers. I have been in the commercial side of healthcare for nearly forty years and have worked at companies large (Fortune 100) and small, and if you ignore the market power of the largest competitors you do so at your peril. When I worked at the Fortune 100 company somebody would get a new idea and we could commercialize it, worldwide, in a matter of months by leveraging a huge pool of high quality resources (sales, marketing, regulatory, information systems, distribution, engineering, production, financial strength, and more).
The two companies you never want to underestimate are Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson. Both are fierce competitors with very deep bench strength and the kind of resources needed to push new technologies into the market. Mannkind does not have those kinds of capability and won't soon have it. Castagna is not Amgen, Kendall is not Lilly, and Galindo is not Medtronic. They each bring some very good experience to Mannkind, but they don't bring with them all the other resources they need to be successful. It is a bit like hiring a winning race car driver, but putting him behind the wheel of a 1973 Chevrolet Vega and expecting him to win races against more capable cars. It is a myth that the best medical technologies win in the market, that has never been true, it is the medical technologies with the best marketing that become dominant.
There is nothing wrong with hiring experienced executives, but don't be surprised if the improvement in product uptake is marginal rather than dramatic. That old Vega had a top speed of around 110 MPH while any modern sports car can easily approach or exceed 200 mph. Don't blame the driver if the car is not ready to win races.
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Post by peppy on Jul 23, 2020 9:32:56 GMT -5
since we are talking Medtronic and the artificial pancreas,
Was Medtronic running internal trials of the artificial pancreas with afrezza?
I seem to recall afrezza being used during the evaluation period of sorts.
If my memory serves me correctly, Medtronic has data with Afrezza?
anyone?
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Post by sayhey24 on Jul 23, 2020 10:00:43 GMT -5
Matt - well said. With that the reality is Medtronic has a long history with MNKD and knows afrezza as well as anyone.
The big question during the MiniMed discussions and even at approval in 2014 was what was going to be the impact of FDPK on the lungs. Well, 6 years later what we have seen is the lung was well engineered to handle FDPK just like it is to handle dust. At the same time the impact of better BG control is better overall PWD health including lung function.
Medtronic is well positioned to be the disruptive force in the diabetes industry. Do they want to be? Why Galindo is now at MNKD is a mystery to me. I am hoping it is not just because he needed a paycheck. What it appears is he is leaving on good terms with Medtronic and still seems to have a foot in the door while he is transitioning to MNKD. That is a bit odd for guys at his level Then again Kendall is still walking the halls of MNKD.
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Post by falconquest on Jul 23, 2020 11:11:18 GMT -5
I respect Dr. Kendall. I’m confident this has not been the easiest job he ever had, and I assume that has been frustrating. We like to win. His time at Mannkind was spent doing what he could to mine new results from old data. I think the bumps in share price at the last two ADA conferences are because of Dr. Kendall’s work. But I think the next stage has to be about getting new data and Dr. Kendall may not have been interested. I assume he will be a valuable asset whereever he goes and I’m sorry to see him go and wish him all the best and thank him for his effort. I’ve said repeatedly Mannkind is under-capitalized and his contributions were important during this difficult time for the company. I don’t understand the comparison of Dr. Kendall as CMO and Dr. Castagna as CCO/CEO. Apples to oranges. It’s like comparing a medical doctor to a pharmacist. They each know their own field better than they know each other’s. I am interested to see how Galindo fairs in his new job as CCO of Mannkind. He has a device background whereas MC had a drug re-launch background. I think the Rx numbers and revenue improvement YoY seen since the time of Matt Pfeffer are to the credit of MC. I hope Galindo is able to capitalize on BlueHale and help get MNKD to the next level. Finally, with Dr. Kendall moving on, I assume there will be a CMO opening to fill. Dr. Kendall was a tremendous catch I thought. I don’t see anyway to top that as far as insulin is concerned, so it will be interesting to see if the next CMO is more appropriate to TS pipeline development for other drugs. The comparison is a thesis under the assumption that the two didn't get along well. And that is only an assumption because we can't know. We have read about Mike's penchant for being obtuse and allowing his ego to get in the way. The point being that based on background, Kendall is the heavyweight when it comes to diabetes. Perhaps Kendall had ideas that Castagna didn't like or didn't want to pursue for whatever reason. Kendall seemed quite positive and energetic when he came to Mannkind and now it seems as though he is quietly slipping out the back door. There is a reason for that. The C-Suite as a whole seems to have a rapidly spinning door at Mannkind. |
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Post by brentie on Jul 23, 2020 11:12:12 GMT -5
since we are talking Medtronic and the artificial pancreas, Was Medtronic running internal trials of the artificial pancreas with afrezza? I seem to recall afrezza being used during the evaluation period of sorts. If my memory serves me correctly, Medtronic has data with Afrezza? anyone? Peppy, I don't recall Medtronic being involved, are you sure you're not thinking of this... |
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Post by falconquest on Jul 23, 2020 11:18:40 GMT -5
Just thinking out loud but perhaps the best overall strategy is for one of the large Pharma's with deep marketing pockets to gobble up both Medtronic and Mannkind and take over diabetes treatment.
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Post by shawnonafrezza on Jul 23, 2020 11:24:05 GMT -5
since we are talking Medtronic and the artificial pancreas, Was Medtronic running internal trials of the artificial pancreas with afrezza? I seem to recall afrezza being used during the evaluation period of sorts. If my memory serves me correctly, Medtronic has data with Afrezza? anyone? Peppy, I don't recall Medtronic being involved, are you sure you're not thinking of this... How far we've come. Kind of upsetting they had the protocol for both the MDT pumps and the Omnipod back in 2013 and the DIY community STILL had to build it themselves. |
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Post by sayhey24 on Jul 23, 2020 12:13:22 GMT -5
since we are talking Medtronic and the artificial pancreas, Was Medtronic running internal trials of the artificial pancreas with afrezza? I seem to recall afrezza being used during the evaluation period of sorts. If my memory serves me correctly, Medtronic has data with Afrezza? anyone? Peppy - afrezza was part of the discussion with Al when they bought MiniMed. At that time Al was already working on the AP but he knew the limitation was the speed of the insulin. He knew afrezza not only solved the problem but made the need for the AP some what unnecessary. He viewed the future of T1 treatment as afrezza and a simple patch pump. During the deal Medtronic took the AP but left the afrezza as there were too many unanswered questions. However, they have been watching it ever since and waiting for the exploding lungs which is not happening. From 2001 - "Minneapolis-based Medtronic also will gain access to a new "artificial pancreas" being jointly developed by MiniMed and MRG. The device, implanted in a diabetes patient's body, is meant to automatically regulate blood-sugar levels through insulin doses and glucose monitoring. The device has been implanted in two patients, the second of which occurred a few days ago, the companies said." money.cnn.com/2001/05/30/deals/medtronic/ |
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Post by shawnonafrezza on Jul 23, 2020 12:44:18 GMT -5
I remember that implant. Literally a few months after my diagnosis and haven't heard a peep about it sense. I wonder how much of that transferred to the HCL now or if it was fully scrapped when they stopped in 2007. From a recent article only 4 in the US exist (not all Minimed) and maybe 450 worldwide but none of them were AP, just a plain pump. Research shows they only minimally modified the pump since 2001 so I doubt they saw the vision there either. There are articles as recent as 2011 where people say[0]: "We have made significant progress on our ultimate goal to provide patients with a fully-implanted, fully-automated pump – a true artificial pancreas." Overall a very odd history. It seems the only value Medtronic got out of Minimed were the 508 pumps and onward since those were revolutionary at the time. [0] www.medtronicdiabetes.com/loop-blog/research-and-development-at-medtronic-driving-toward-a-closed-loop-system/ |
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Post by sayhey24 on Jul 23, 2020 13:15:09 GMT -5
Shawn - nothing much has changed since Al invented the AP except the packaging. All these open source groups are reinventing Al's wheel. However, Al knew the wheel would always have square edges as the insulin was too damn slow. He knew 20 years ago he could not solve the insulin problem. He needed monomers in a solution but it was too unstable.
Al was at least 20 years ahead of the industry.
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Post by shawnonafrezza on Jul 23, 2020 13:23:41 GMT -5
I've said it before Al was surely a visionary but that doesn't mean if he couldn't solve it it is unsolvable. Insulet, Medtronic, 2 separate DIY groups, CamAPS, the list goes on. They didn't copy his wheel like you said, the reinvented it and are seeing good results. I've posted them before and in this thread. I don't think an APS is right for me but to dispute where they're at is just sill at this point. Sure they can't tackle eating candy without being told candy was eaten but IMO nobody should really be eating candy.
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Post by mytakeonit on Jul 23, 2020 13:33:07 GMT -5
Matt said - "There is nothing wrong with hiring experienced executives, but don't be surprised if the improvement in product uptake is marginal rather than dramatic. That old Vega had a top speed of around 110 MPH while any modern sports car can easily approach or exceed 200 mph. Don't blame the driver if the car is not ready to win races."
In a race with only one tank of fuel allowed ... my old VW bug could have passed that race car many times over. MNKD has Afrezza in it's tank and UTHR behind the wheel. So having a device guy like Galindo around makes perfect sense to me.
But, that's mytakeonit
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Post by sayhey24 on Jul 23, 2020 13:50:04 GMT -5
I've said it before Al was surely a visionary but that doesn't mean if he couldn't solve it it is unsolvable. Insulet, Medtronic, 2 separate DIY groups, CamAPS, the list goes on. They didn't copy his wheel like you said, the reinvented it and are seeing good results. I've posted them before and in this thread. I don't think an APS is right for me but to dispute where they're at is just sill at this point. Sure they can't tackle eating candy without being told candy was eaten but IMO nobody should really be eating candy. Shawn - until you can stabilize monomers in a solution they will all hit the same roadblock Al hit. You are correct they did not copy Al as they probably don't even know what was done. There are a lot of smart guys out there but Al solved the problems the other smart guys could not. Sooner or later they will uncover Al's roadblock. In the end Al solved the problem. He called it afrezza. Galindo is here for a reason bigger than needing a paycheck. This was the guy heading up HCL development at Medtronic. I sure hope he has a few rabbits in his hat or better yet the cure for our golden goose. |
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Post by shawnonafrezza on Jul 23, 2020 13:56:24 GMT -5
I've said it before Al was surely a visionary but that doesn't mean if he couldn't solve it it is unsolvable. Insulet, Medtronic, 2 separate DIY groups, CamAPS, the list goes on. They didn't copy his wheel like you said, the reinvented it and are seeing good results. I've posted them before and in this thread. I don't think an APS is right for me but to dispute where they're at is just sill at this point. Sure they can't tackle eating candy without being told candy was eaten but IMO nobody should really be eating candy. Shawn - until you can stabilize monomers in a solution they will all hit the same roadblock Al hit. You are correct they did not copy Al as they probably don't even know what was done. There are a lot of smart guys out there but Al solved the problems the other smart guys could not. Sooner or later they will uncover Al's roadblock. In the end Al solved the problem. He called it afrezza. Galindo is here for a reason bigger than needing a paycheck. This was the guy heading up HCL development at Medtronic. I sure hope he has a few rabbits in his hat or better yet the cure for our golden goose. Correct. So either he thinks HCLs aren't the future or he was forced out. If he things HCLs are the future then it would make much more sense for him to have stayed and tried to partner with Afrezza while on the bigger team. If a sub 6 A1C is a roadblock then I'm not sure what is expected when the SOC says sub 7 is amazing. |
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