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Post by sayhey24 on Jan 30, 2023 19:47:00 GMT -5
They very well might be bringing food. I don’t know for sure. The doctors before me at my practice vetoed reps so I’m not even able to have them come to my office. I’ve requested a rep both times. I initiated the contact. I may have misunderstood the answer when I asked it. My rep says he drives around and essentially cold calls offices and just shows up to see if he can get face time. If you get the rep and they are not buying lunch I will buy it on one condition - you teach this rep how they should be presenting/selling afrezza. Do you like Chinese or you want something else? Have the rep send all the studies MNKD has - all of Kendall's veins of gold a week before and the presentation they are going to pitch. |
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Post by stevil on Jan 30, 2023 19:55:42 GMT -5
Ha, yes. He buys me lunch. I wouldn’t meet with him otherwise 🤪 I’m just joking, but, then again, maybe I wouldn’t see him much otherwise.
Thanks for the offer. I actually believe what you are telling me is true. I haven’t had any issue with the reps. I think they’ve been great. It takes character to play against a stacked deck.
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Post by phdedieu12 on Jan 30, 2023 20:05:03 GMT -5
Send your application in! You have great ideas, go make a difference, get off the side lines and go show us what this company could be, I know Mannkind is hiring and after reading your posts and some of the opinions of your fellow board members, you can do it! Let's see how amazing you are, I believe in you! I thought that's why we hired Mike? Aren't we paying this guy a lot of money and stock. He needs to get'er done or get moving. That's business, nothing personal. You are saying we hired bottom of the barrel and Stevil says in not so many words the reps lack leadership. Now you want me to step in for free and do Mike's job? Free is not happening but a lot of warrants might. BTW - at least in my own mind I am still pretty amazing but I am not getting any younger but thanks for believing in me. I am not "filling out" an application but Mike has my number if he wants me to come out of retirement and bring my megaphone and ladder to San Diego in June and do some "Seeing is Believing" demos which don't cost $6M. He needs you! It's clear he's incapable, and well reading your posts, it's never been more evident that you have all the answers, don't be shy. You will show all those lousy reps how it's done and make a fortune in the process. Of course you need to get paid and handsomely I might add. I give you three weeks to get those scripts above 1000, we're all rooting for you! Time to get off the keyboard on put your money where your mouth is, if anyone can do it, well you've certainly touted your amazing ideas and keen understanding of the product, industry, barriers to entry and my instinct tell me that in a month you're director of sales. |
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Post by phdedieu12 on Jan 30, 2023 20:08:16 GMT -5
Ha, yes. He buys me lunch. I wouldn’t meet with him otherwise 🤪 I’m just joking, but, then again, maybe I wouldn’t see him much otherwise. Thanks for the offer. I actually believe what you are telling me is true. I haven’t had any issue with the reps. I think they’ve been great. It takes character to play against a stacked deck. I am not sure if anyone ever asked you, but how many patients do you have on Afrezza? |
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Post by caesar on Jan 30, 2023 20:08:20 GMT -5
They very well might be bringing food. I don’t know for sure. The doctors before me at my practice vetoed reps so I’m not even able to have them come to my office. I’ve requested a rep both times. I initiated the contact. I may have misunderstood the answer when I asked it. My rep says he drives around and essentially cold calls offices and just shows up to see if he can get face time. For what it's worth: In Pittsburgh, PA; we have two very large hospital conglomerates UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and Allegheny General Health System. These two organizations employ thousands of physicians, and pharmaceutical reps are banned from entering any of the doctors' offices. Corporate mandate! Furthermore, I personally have a dozen close friends who are physicians, some still practicing, others have recently retired. After our bi-weekly gathering at the sport center to play squash, racquetball or volleyball, we would commiserate over the never-ending changes the medical field. Most of the docs ultimately sold their practices to these two conglomerates over the years and their world changed dramatically. They made out like bandits by selling their practices, but they were no longer "rock star" doing their own thing - they lost complete control over how they practice medicine. Some didn't mind; some loved the change; others became bitter and angry over the bureaucracy. Gone were the never-ending freebees from big Pharma. These included, lunches, dinners, free tickets to sporting events, trips to exotic places. The close personal relationship between the reps and the physician ended. The only reps that have seemed to have avoided this mandate are the ones servicing the operating rooms (medical devices, instruments, etc.). In fact, when a new device is introduced into the environment, the rep is required to be present during procedure to provide technical guidance if so required (called on the job training & monitoring). Not forever, but definitely for the transition period. I guess what I have observed is that soft selling (brochures, yapping, etc) is no longer coveted or required. Technical reps are flourishing and in demand, because they are specialized coaches, not salespeople. I am not an expert about how to sell drugs, don't claim to be, I just know that access has become a major issue for reps. |
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Post by cretin11 on Jan 30, 2023 20:33:33 GMT -5
Totally agree, sayhey. We are better off with Mike having less say in the marketing, not more. You know Martine is making sure that's the case, and let's watch Tyvaso sales follow the proper trajectory. We can all contrast that with our Afrezza track record. Stevil points out (and he has an advantage of perspective over the rest of us), simply throwing more money to get a more persistent sales team won't cut it. I suspect (hope) even Mike understands this, as sales/marketing have not been his forte, at least with MNKD. A good CEO recognizes strengths and weaknesses and stays in the right lanes. Our cash position is getting better with time, let's not squander that by misallocating $$ resources. Leave the sales to those who do it well, and MNKD can still profit handsomely. What a bunch of baloney. Way to throw foo at MannKind's CEO. You have either forgotten or choose to ignore why Mike was hired and what his prior position with Amgen and others were before coming to MannKind. He specialized in the management of re-launching drugs which had struggled to gain traction in the marketplace. What was the SPECIFIC job he was hired to do? Re-launch Afrezza. Look at the sales of Afrezza before Mike got here, and then after. He's managed to do far better than Sanofi and with a fraction of the resources. And Afrezza sales growth is agonizing slow, but the revenue is still material, and growing. And do not forget, the company was literally teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and Sanofi had conducted NONE of the trials needed to successfully market Afrezza. I'm surprised he accepted the job, let alone sought it. Imagine leaving an important executive position at a well-known and successful pharmaceutical company and joining a one-drug, nearly bankrupt company with toxic debt and leftover marketing materials, SKUs, et cetera from Sanofi? It blows my mind. Once he became CEO, his focus had to be righting the ship and that meant a lot more than pouring all available resources into marketing Afrezza which will never be as successful as Humalog, Novolog, etc, according to stevil, agedhippie, and others until MannKind is able to supply persuasive clinical data on the same scale as the big 3. That has quite simply been beyond their means for the nearly 6 years Mike has been here. Maybe not now, but hopefully soon, thanks to the additional revenue from Tyvaso DPI (and V-Go) that capability may be in reach.
Since you've forgotten or ignored Mike's curriculum vitae, let me help you out.
VALENCIA, Calif., March 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) (TASE:MNKD) today announced that Michael E. Castagna, Pharm.D., has joined the company as its Chief Commercial Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Castagna will lead commercialization efforts for Afrezza®, reporting to Matthew Pfeffer, Chief Executive Officer, and will serve on MannKind's executive leadership team.
Dr. Castagna has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech and specialty pharmacy industries. He joins MannKind from Amgen, Inc., where he spent over three years as Vice President, Global Commercial Lead for a portfolio of nine biosimilar drugs, and Vice President, Global Lifecycle Management. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Castagna, was Executive Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Immunology franchise, where he served as co-lead to relaunch Orencia IV and launch Orencia SC, both rheumatoid arthritis drugs. Before BMS, Dr. Castagna was with Sandoz (Novartis) as Vice President and Division Head for Biopharmaceuticals, North America, where he established the US Biologics Business Unit and relaunched its lead product, Omnitrope, a human growth hormone. Prior to Sandoz, Dr. Castagna held a variety of positions with EMD (Merck), Serono, Pharmasset and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Castagna received his Bachelors of Science - Pharmacy degree from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, his Doctor of Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Quite a diatribe, you’ve always been hypersensitive about constructive feedback for Mike. Paragraph breaks would make your posts more readable. We know Mike had a background in big pharma, but our point stands that he has not been successful marketing/selling at MNKD, sadly not even close. You say it blows your mind he would even take the job at MNKD. If you review his comp package it should enlighten you. According to phdedieu we had to hire bottom of the barrel salespeople. Likewise, Mike was not our first choice for CEO and you seem to believe it’s shocking anyone qualified would take the job. However, I’d like to believe he isn’t bottom of the barrel and that he’s learning from his failures. I’m even hopeful of it, and proof will be if he plays to MNKD’s strengths and not our weaknesses going forward. |
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Post by phdedieu12 on Jan 30, 2023 20:51:37 GMT -5
Interesting way to interpret my post, not that I am surprised. Even more interesting that those are the same words used by Sayhey, but not surprising the least. What I said, since you found it convenient to twist a rather straight forward concept, is that it is near impossible for a company going out of business to find quality people to join. I can simplify it a bit for you though: If you're a top notch sales executive at Amgen, Lilly or other, making a killing, would you join a company many seem to believe is going out of business?
It takes a very special human being, like our CEO. And what do you mean, Mike was not our first choice? You mean your first choice? Did you have a better candidate fighting for the job? Can't wait to read that special nugget.
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Post by cretin11 on Jan 30, 2023 22:53:55 GMT -5
Yes you’re right, sayhey interpreted your words as “bottom of the barrel” while you are saying “impossible to find quality people.” Thank you for clarifying.
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Post by phdedieu12 on Jan 30, 2023 23:34:40 GMT -5
You're welcome! I am here to help
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Post by sayhey24 on Jan 31, 2023 7:15:16 GMT -5
Ha, yes. He buys me lunch. I wouldn’t meet with him otherwise 🤪 I’m just joking, but, then again, maybe I wouldn’t see him much otherwise. Thanks for the offer. I actually believe what you are telling me is true. I haven’t had any issue with the reps. I think they’ve been great. It takes character to play against a stacked deck. I course I was serious. I would even like to come if you were on the east coast. I like Chinese. Is he doing a demo??? Let us know how it goes. |
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Post by sportsrancho on Jan 31, 2023 7:30:39 GMT -5
Wow, that was quite a read… meaning this thread.
I have one thing to add, and it has nothing to do with me personally, because I did not apply …and it has nothing to do with Vdex.
There’s four shareholders I know that are excellent pharmaceutical reps or could be, that applied to Mannkind and didn’t get the job. I was flabbergasted. To be clear I am not blaming Mike, but the person that interviewed them for the job didn’t know anywhere near what they knew!
I was so disappointed and of course so were they, and you guys know who you are.
On another note, when I met the Mannkind rep who was taking over an area from Sanofi in Riverside County she was very young and had been driving around with a Sanofi rep, listening to what they said about how older people couldn’t take a Afrezza because they were coughing it all up.
I told her, you have to forget everything Sanofi has told you!
Granted, that was a long time ago, but she was too young to even realize how she was being manipulated. Or that she was talking to a major shareholder.🤷♀️
David ( Mannmade ) and I were at Rancho Medical giving a Afrezza presentation. Because of me, David got in the door but because David was so persistent he got to give the presentation not only to Dr. Walt Combs, but Walt offered to let him present in front of the other 12 doctors he had coming to a special conference. Before that time Walt said he never saw a Mannkind rep, but then a few months later, there were some brochures thrown on the front table. He brought them next-door to the gym I worked out and showed me.
That gym closed, but before I left, Walt had a couple of type two diabetics on Afrezza.
That was a long time ago and at the time Mike offered to come and give the presentation, we already had it set up but I very much appreciate it.
The Vdex Mannkind reps are super. We love them ..but they’re coming into an environment that loves them in the first place.
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Post by prcgorman2 on Jan 31, 2023 7:36:43 GMT -5
What a bunch of baloney. Way to throw foo at MannKind's CEO. You have either forgotten or choose to ignore why Mike was hired and what his prior position with Amgen and others were before coming to MannKind. He specialized in the management of re-launching drugs which had struggled to gain traction in the marketplace. What was the SPECIFIC job he was hired to do? Re-launch Afrezza. Look at the sales of Afrezza before Mike got here, and then after. He's managed to do far better than Sanofi and with a fraction of the resources. And Afrezza sales growth is agonizing slow, but the revenue is still material, and growing. And do not forget, the company was literally teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and Sanofi had conducted NONE of the trials needed to successfully market Afrezza. I'm surprised he accepted the job, let alone sought it. Imagine leaving an important executive position at a well-known and successful pharmaceutical company and joining a one-drug, nearly bankrupt company with toxic debt and leftover marketing materials, SKUs, et cetera from Sanofi? It blows my mind. Once he became CEO, his focus had to be righting the ship and that meant a lot more than pouring all available resources into marketing Afrezza which will never be as successful as Humalog, Novolog, etc, according to stevil, agedhippie, and others until MannKind is able to supply persuasive clinical data on the same scale as the big 3. That has quite simply been beyond their means for the nearly 6 years Mike has been here. Maybe not now, but hopefully soon, thanks to the additional revenue from Tyvaso DPI (and V-Go) that apability may be in reach.
Since you've forgotten or ignored Mike's curriculum vitae, let me help you out.
VALENCIA, Calif., March 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) (TASE:MNKD) today announced that Michael E. Castagna, Pharm.D., has joined the company as its Chief Commercial Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Castagna will lead commercialization efforts for Afrezza®, reporting to Matthew Pfeffer, Chief Executive Officer, and will serve on MannKind's executive leadership team.
Dr. Castagna has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech and specialty pharmacy industries. He joins MannKind from Amgen, Inc., where he spent over three years as Vice President, Global Commercial Lead for a portfolio of nine biosimilar drugs, and Vice President, Global Lifecycle Management. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Castagna, was Executive Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Immunology franchise, where he served as co-lead to relaunch Orencia IV and launch Orencia SC, both rheumatoid arthritis drugs. Before BMS, Dr. Castagna was with Sandoz (Novartis) as Vice President and Division Head for Biopharmaceuticals, North America, where he established the US Biologics Business Unit and relaunched its lead product, Omnitrope, a human growth hormone. Prior to Sandoz, Dr. Castagna held a variety of positions with EMD (Merck), Serono, Pharmasset and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Castagna received his Bachelors of Science - Pharmacy degree from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, his Doctor of Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Quite a diatribe, you’ve always been hypersensitive about constructive feedback for Mike. Paragraph breaks would make your posts more readable. We know Mike had a background in big pharma, but our point stands that he has not been successful marketing/selling at MNKD, sadly not even close. You say it blows your mind he would even take the job at MNKD. If you review his comp package it should enlighten you. According to phdedieu we had to hire bottom of the barrel salespeople. Likewise, Mike was not our first choice for CEO and you seem to believe it’s shocking anyone qualified would take the job. However, I’d like to believe he isn’t bottom of the barrel and that he’s learning from his failures. I’m even hopeful of it, and proof will be if he plays to MNKD’s strengths and not our weaknesses going forward. Thanks for the constructive criticism on editing. Sorry for lack of paragraph breaks. I was “in the moment”. I will not, without actual first-hand knowledge, mislabel Mannkind’s sales reps as “bottom of the barrel”. I do think this thread has been extremely helpful and enlightening although your remark about Mike’s compensation not so much - I assume you like to be paid for your effort too. Saved any small BPs on the brink of bankruptcy lately? Re-launched any life-changing diabetes treatments with a rock and a butter knife? No? Ok, then, maybe we can stop talking about Mike’s qualifications and accomplishments as though they’re worthless. With regard to the results of the salesforce and their extremely challenging work environment and lack of tools, my heart goes out to them. This underscores the importance of continuing clinical studies, and not otherwise. It seems that hiring retired diabetics who might be able to use a little extra cash and something more to do could be a very helpful source of less-expensive. but very effective seasoned veteran adults who may be more persuasive once they’ve gained access. On the topic of access. If you can’t get into the large facilities, don’t go there. Not kidding. I live in a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people. Hundeds of doctors offices and plenty of large facilities, but also numerous smaller offices and dozens of small towns in the area outside of the city. Takes more gas and time, but if you can manage 2 more prescriptions a week for 50 reps, thats an increase of a 100 prescriptions in a week. With sales the way they are currently, it would be a material improvement. Easy to say, but perhaps not very helpful. The comment in the thead about technical training on devices sparked an idea that re-focusing on diabetes educators as pseudo-reps might be helpful, and here again, hiring PWDs has merit. PWDs respond to other PWDs and to non-PWDs not as much (and who can blame them?). stevil, you want sales reps because they have information about the tools in your toolbox whether you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a mechanic, or an engineer. (Lawyers in modern offices rely heavily on electronic discovery and those tools are rapidly evolving). I too most often chatted with sales reps at lunch, but also met with them when I was working projects and needed them and the folks in their company to be engaged. And I get it about a schedule that requires making those appointments many days or even weeks in advance. With stressful jobs comes good pay, but no omniscience, so reps and taking time still matters as you yourself pointed out. |
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Post by Clement on Jan 31, 2023 7:38:49 GMT -5
Clofazimine?
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Post by phdedieu12 on Jan 31, 2023 9:08:46 GMT -5
Wow, that was quite a read… meaning this thread. I have one thing to add, and it has nothing to do with me personally, because I did not apply …and it has nothing to do with Vdex. There’s four shareholders I know that are excellent pharmaceutical reps or could be, that applied to Mannkind and didn’t get the job. I was flabbergasted. To be clear I am not blaming Mike, but the person that interviewed them for the job didn’t know anywhere near what they knew! I was so disappointed and of course so were they, and you guys know who you are. On another note, when I met the Mannkind rep who was taking over an area from Sanofi in Riverside County she was very young and had been driving around with a Sanofi rep, listening to what they said about how older people couldn’t take a Afrezza because they were coughing it all up. I told her, you have to forget everything Sanofi has told you! Granted, that was a long time ago, but she was too young to even realize how she was being manipulated. Or that she was talking to a major shareholder.🤷♀️ David ( Mannmade ) and I were at Rancho Medical giving a Afrezza presentation. Because of me, David got in the door but because David was so persistent he got to give the presentation not only to Dr. Walt Combs, but Walt offered to let him present in front of the other 12 doctors he had coming to a special conference. Before that time Walt said he never saw a Mannkind rep, but then a few months later, there were some brochures thrown on the front table. He brought them next-door to the gym I worked out and showed me. That gym closed, but before I left, Walt had a couple of type two diabetics on Afrezza. That was a long time ago and at the time Mike offered to come and give the presentation, we already had it set up but I very much appreciate it. The Vdex Mannkind reps are super. We love them ..but they’re coming into an environment that loves them in the first place. Logic and common sense dictates that if your sales force isn't delivering results they're not rock stars. I'd ask you the same question cretin failed to answer: if you're that top producer at another pharma, do you go to a company struggling to make payroll? |
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Post by sportsrancho on Jan 31, 2023 9:19:19 GMT -5
I’m not quite sure what your point is but I think that that’s exactly why they should’ve hired the people that were knowledgeable and believed in Afrezza.
Although, maybe they just didn’t want to hire shareholders, I don’t know.
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