Afrezza Sales Channels - Such as VDEX

[stockwhisperer]

On another subject, here’s a valid business question about VDEX. Something I have asked about early on and always wondered when we see weekly sales data for Afrezza. What are the actual, detailed sales results for VDEX. VDEX should have them and have no problem sharing them, right? When I managed sales for a large corporation, I had to provide detailed sales results by channel. I see VDEX as a sales channel for Afrezza. VDEX must track their own results on at least a weekly and monthly basis so, what are they. For example, of the total monthly data = scripts, refills, etc., specifically by VDEX, what is the breakdown for VDEX. What percentage of overall Afrezza sales come from VDEX? Also, what is the retention rate for VDEX? These are important things to know in order to measure a sales channels true performance. Simple, valid, objective business questions. What are the answers?

[cretin11]

Probably not reasonable to expect VDEX to share this info. Even MNKD doesn’t share all those details, and Afrezza is MNKD’s product.

[stockwhisperer]

What.. why not? MNKD shares their sales results. Why wouldn’t VDEX want to share their sales results - especially, if they are good - otherwise, it is just speculation and guessing as to how they are doing in general and compared to anyone else selling Afrezza. Folks on line often say - in their opinion, how good or bad MNKD is doing based on sales, refills and retention data. Even knowing the percent of overall sales would be good. Fact… without this kind of info from VDEX, how they are performing is a complete unknown.

[phdedieu12]

When I joined the board and learn about VDEX, I never really got a lot of clarity about the company and at the time I believe I asked the same question: How many of the XX number of weekly scripts can be attributed to those VDEX clinics? What is a VDEX clinic? I never received a clear answer, and was left to my own conclusions. I think Sportrancho is the one member on the board that seems to be the most knowledgeable about this. Mannkind doesn't talk about it, therefore I doubt they see it as a sales channel like you do. Sport, can you provide some context??

[uvula]

There is no good business reason for a privately held company to share revenue or profit information with the general public. The only reason publicly held companies share this info is because they are legally required to do so.

[sayhey24]

Jan 23, 2023 11:17:35 GMT -5 phdedieu12 said:

When I joined the board and learn about VDEX, I never really got a lot of clarity about the company and at the time I believe I asked the same question: How many of the XX number of weekly scripts can be attributed to those VDEX clinics? What is a VDEX clinic? I never received a clear answer, and was left to my own conclusions. I think Sportrancho is the one member on the board that seems to be the most knowledgeable about this. Mannkind doesn't talk about it, therefore I doubt they see it as a sales channel like you do. Sport, can you provide some context??

www.vdexdiabetes.com/

MNKD is a manufacturer.  Their sales reps supply samples to VDex just like any other doctor office. VDex could probably use more samples.

Bill has done more to push Mike than anyone I know.  

[prcgorman2]

At least once it was asserted by MC that VDEX was not an important contributor to Afrezza weekly sales, but that was years ago. It might have been true and/or it might have been MC being dismissive from annoyance over the HfM debacle. Don't know and no longer care. And I don't care if VDEX shares their sales information. I wish Bill and the VDEX team nothing but outstanding success.

Afrezza sales have been slowly growing (both Rx and $$) for years and the reasons for the slow growth in my opinion are:
* lack of prescribers (and based on comments from agedhippie, stevil, Matt, and others I assume it is mainly because of a lack of large scale clinical study evidence since 2014 - maybe the pediatric and India Cipla trials will help)
* poor insurance coverage (because of high price of Afrezza and lack of PBM discounts I assume)

Last week's TRx numbers were so surprisingly good, I had to assume they were an outlier anomaly. It may be however that the hoped-for benefit of Medicare coverage of the "inhaled" form of insulin specified in the Inflation Reduction Act has materialized, or perhaps as stevil speculated, changes in the AfrezzaAssist program made substantive contributions to Afrezza sales and may continue and even grow.

[stockwhisperer]

True a private company does not have to share a thing but why not… why the secret? VDEX knows how many sales Afrezza has and they know the percentage of those they made. If the numbers are high, why wouldn’t they want to toot their own horn about it and show via hard facts how they are actually doing. Bottom line - without that basic info it is impossible to really know how VDEX is doing. It is all speculation, opinions and guesses.

[phdedieu12]

I agree with Uvula on this one, a privately owned company has no reasons to share information with the general public. At the same time, if it is my company and those sales represent a sizable percentage of the overall scripts I would certainly disclose that information and make a case to MNKD about my business model.

[phdedieu12]

Jan 23, 2023 11:43:00 GMT -5 prcgorman2 said:

At least once it was asserted by MC that VDEX was not an important contributor to Afrezza weekly sales, but that was years ago. It might have been true and/or it might have been MC being dismissive from annoyance over the HfM debacle. Don't know and no longer care. And I don't care if VDEX shares their sales information. I wish Bill and the VDEX team nothing but outstanding success.

Afrezza sales have been slowly growing (both Rx and $$) for years and the reasons for the slow growth in my opinion are:
* lack of prescribers (and based on comments from agedhippie, stevil, Matt, and others I assume it is mainly because of a lack of large scale clinical study evidence since 2014 - maybe the pediatric and India Cipla trials will help)
* poor insurance coverage (because of high price of Afrezza and lack of PBM discounts I assume)

Last week's TRx numbers were so surprisingly good, I had to assume they were an outlier anomaly. It may be however that the hoped-for benefit of Medicare coverage of the "inhaled" form of insulin specified in the Inflation Reduction Act has materialized, or perhaps as stevil speculated, changes in the AfrezzaAssist program made substantive contributions to Afrezza sales and may continue and even grow.

Too early to tell, but the next few weeks might provide a clearer picture. While it's been discussed, we don't know the impact of medicare coverage but it might actually be positive, or more so than we anticipated. Discontinuing the free goods program should also show some of those positive results. While we might not expect ALL those patients to continue on Afrezza, I can't imagine that they ALL drop off the medication and will go through insurance as paying customers. 

[porkini]

Jan 23, 2023 10:55:17 GMT -5 stockwhisperer said:

What.. why not? MNKD shares their sales results. Why wouldn’t VDEX want to share their sales results - especially, if they are good - otherwise, it is just speculation and guessing as to how they are doing in general and compared to anyone else selling Afrezza. Folks on line often say - in their opinion, how good or bad MNKD is doing based on sales, refills and retention data. Even knowing the percent of overall sales would be good. Fact… without this kind of info from VDEX, how they are performing is a complete unknown.

It sounds like you are misunderstanding privately versus publicly  held business ventures and requirements to report certain things.

Vdex is privately held, no requirement to report to me, you, or any other person. They are required to file with the IRS.

This conversation has been discussed here before, use the search function.  If you have new material information about this please message me. Until then, this thread is locked.