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Post by mnkdmorelong on Jan 14, 2016 16:20:38 GMT -5
There are three drug candidates for TS under consideration. Palonsetron (for Chemo), Epinephrine, and a third for pulmonary hypertension. All three put together are only a fraction of the insulin market. Except for Epinephrine, the drugs will have full clinical trials. Missing from the list is MNKD's pain med. Also missing are large volume drugs. I think this is why it has taken so long to get a TS deal. MNKD went through the list of high volume drugs and found no buyers. Now they are down to the orphan drug volume level. I can't see any of the opportunities generating a large up front payment. MNKD needs cash now. Was hoping some of the more established docs could speak up to what they think about the potential here. I find myself in the same camp, unfortunately. All of the medications on here are already on the market, some in somewhat cheap formulations. I thought I remembered seeing vancomycin on the list? This would be helpful because they wouldn't require an IV, but aren't patients usually admitted anyway if they're infected with an agent that would require them to take it? I don't know enough to know if it would be as simple as writing a script and then allowing them to go home. It's one of those things that sounds good on paper, but doesn't really fill a need. Unless someone on here can speak up and correct me? Then, the vast majority of these are niche drugs. These are great to develop the pipeline, but horrible right now if we're counting on them to get us through our financial crisis. It sounds to me like Matt's greatest hope is that these will simply instill confidence in the company and raise the share price to do another offering. I didn't get the impression that he was counting too much on upfront payments, although I'm sure he's hoping for them ha. I was really hoping MNKD would develop their own novel medications. Really, after I think about it, there aren't too many medications that need quick absorption. Mainly cardiac related meds. Epi would be one of them, but as another posted added, it worked quickly in the pen. And I raised the issue in another thread that a few of the biggest problems with anaphylaxis is a swollen tongue/throat and difficulty breathing. I'm not really sure I would want to prescribe an inhaled medication as the sole means of treating anaphylactic shock. I think I'd still want a pen as a backup just in case they didn't take it soon enough before their tongue/throat swell, and bronchioles close up. Unless there is a study that shows it's just as effective under those scenarios... The value of the TS technology is that it can do something that has not been done before. Rapid in and out insulin is the example. If Epinephrine runs into a block airway issue and the standard of care (Epipen) works fine, then the opportunity is not crisp and compelling. I am sure analyst can do the calculus and value the novelty of the API/TS pair. Your take (and mine) is meh. Too many of these will degrade the value of MNKD. |
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Post by curiousdoc on Jan 14, 2016 16:31:49 GMT -5
1) Likely little money in antibiotics, a prime reason why no drug companies are doing significant research in the area. That being said, there could be some applications. Patients on long term IV antibiotics (osteomyelitis, endocarditis for example) are often sent home from the hospital after a PICC (semi-permanent peripheral central line) is placed for home administration of IV drugs. TS delivery would save cost of the line placement and lower risk of peripheral line infection associated with this.
2) I think there could be a marginal value in the anti-nausea drugs. IV is the preferred method of delivery since oral medications aren't tolerated well. This could work well for patients without ready IV access.
3) My best targets would be migraine and pain control (pediatric population especially).
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Post by charleyd on Jan 14, 2016 18:52:40 GMT -5
I thought I remembered seeing vancomycin on the list? This would be helpful because they wouldn't require an IV, but aren't patients usually admitted anyway if they're infected with an agent that would require them to take it? I don't know enough to know if it would be as simple as writing a script and then allowing them to go home.
Read more: mnkd.proboards.com/thread/4907/ts-orphan-drugs?page=2#ixzz3xGSNKZzqUnfortunately I have some direct experience with this. Just as curiousdoc mentions in his post, vancomycin administered via a PICC line is a common practice for home self-administration (at least it was a decade ago). I helped my wife with this for a couple of weeks back then. If vancomycin could instead be delivered effectively via a TS inhaler, it would be a significant improvement.
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