MannKind Announces Appointment of Michael Castagna as CCO

[liane]

investors.mannkindcorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=960535

ALENCIA, 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.

"I'm very pleased to welcome Michael to the MannKind team in this important new role," said Matthew Pfeffer, Chief Executive Officer of MannKind Corporation. "His extensive pharma background, including driving sales and marketing for so many new and relaunched products, will be invaluable as we prepare to reintroduce Afrezza to the market in the coming months."

Dr. Castagna said, "I am excited to be joining MannKind at this critical intersection as we transform our future. I am enthusiastic about the commercial opportunity for Afrezza and the potential it has to help adults with diabetes manage this difficult disease."

MannKind also announced today that Juergen A. Martens has resigned as its Chief Operating Officer, effective March 18, 2016.

Mr. Pfeffer added, "Juergen was instrumental in building the commercial manufacturing infrastructure that we have today in Danbury. We thank Juergen for his many contributions to the company, and we wish him the very best. Operationally, MannKind's Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President for Technical Operations, Joseph Kocinsky, will continue his existing responsibilities for the manufacture of Afrezza."

[mnholdem]

Orencia was approved by the FDA in 2005 and has been approved for a patent extension which is currently set to expire in the U.S. in 2019. The drug has been a steadily building blockbuster for BMS. Worldwide revenues for 2014 were $1.65 billion, up 15% from $1.44 billion in 2013. However, before that the drug notched annual sales gains of 20% or more every year since the launch in 2006. Total lifetime sales now top $7.2 billion. For 2015, BMS reported that Orencia revenue grew 10% in the first quarter and 15% in the second quarter.

In 2007, Omnitrope, a growth hormone approved in part based on data from Genotropin, was launched in the US. Omnitrope share in the growth hormone market was low despite a significantly lower WAC until a large PBM with a conglomerate of health plans chose to prefer sole Omnitrope in the 2009–2010 time frame. Payers preferring Omnitrope did so across all indications, even those for which Omnitrope had not been approved.

---

For those who expressed their wish for a new management team, perhaps you're about to get your wish. Due to the recent job advertisement for a corporate council, I wonder if Jeurgen Martens' departure may soon be followed by David B. Thomsen, MannKind's Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate.

If so, I hope CEO Pfeffer and Chairman Kresa are putting together a crack corporate A-Team.

[mindovermatter]

While I can't say for certain why he left Amgen, I can only guess the thought of being the head guy of a smaller company to push its only drug is a challenge he didn't want to pass up considering he has a year of data to see how the drug has done with patients who have used it and love it. How many people love the drugs they are on? Not many. Many wish they didn't have to be on them. Castagna now has a great opportunity to take a battered and misunderstood drug and turn it into something we all hope it can be. If he's successful with Afrezza, he'll probably be deemed as one of the best drug marketers in the business if not ever.

[bradleysbest]

And become rich beyond his wildest dreams!

[therealisaching]

If you'd like to hear an example of his speaking style a webinar "Market Dynamics for Biosimilars in the US" is available here:

www.mediware.com/home-care/webinars/specialty-pharmacy-market-dynamics-for-biosimilars-in-the-u-s/

You have to register to gain access. 

[BlueCat]

Mar 15, 2016 10:14:22 GMT -5 bradleysbest said:

And become rich beyond his wildest dreams!

Not to mention a chance to actually getting written into business school books as a case study in turnarounds alongside Pfeffer - if they pull it off!

[mnholdem]

Matt announced that FOUR abstracts have been accepted by the ADA and that two more will soon be submitted. It sounds like our new Chief Commercial Officer will have little problem separating Afrezza from the rest of the pack.  I hope that he will also start using "monomer insulin" along with the Afrezza name. More and more we're hearing testimonials about the benefits of Afrezza in CONTROLLING blood glucose. The fact that it's not injected isn't what's being discussed. It's how well it's working.

[mindovermatter]

Mar 15, 2016 11:23:13 GMT -5 mnholdem said:

Matt announced that FOUR abstracts have been accepted by the ADA and that two more will soon be submitted. It sounds like our new Chief Commercial Officer will have little problem separating Afrezza from the rest of the pack.  I hope that he will also start using "monomer insulin" along with the Afrezza name. More and more we're hearing testimonials about the benefits of Afrezza in CONTROLLING blood glucose. The fact that it's not injected isn't what's being discussed. It's how well it's working.

I think you might be getting a bit ahead of yourself in thinking the 4 abstracts are going help Afrezza separate itself from the pack. Remember, the company can't claim anything other than what the FDA has allowed it under the current approval. We don't know the content of these abstracts and we don't know if they contain anything that will allow Mannkind to petition the FDA to further enhance the label. 

[mnholdem]

Apparently you don't understand what abstracts are or who writes them...

[4allthemarbles]

Question- are the abstracts publicly available or will they be after June?

[mnholdem]

Yes. They will be published at the date of the June ADA. I do not know who the authors of the various abstracts are, however.

Basically, the primary importance of these documents is that they are peer-reviewed and so are considered more reliable by the medical community.

[chuck]

Dude got 400k in salary, 200k annual bonus, 50k signing bonus, 14k car allowance, 1.3 million share options (cha Ching!) Very generous of mnkd. The 50k signing bonus was a nice touch.

[kbrion77]

Interesting that there are some other ties to Amgen within the Al Mann circle.  Means absolutely nothing at all but fun to research.


theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/strategic-planning-innovation-summit-new-york-2015/speakers/11352

[jurystillout]

Mar 15, 2016 23:16:01 GMT -5 chuck said:

Dude got 400k in salary, 200k annual bonus, 50k signing bonus, 14k car allowance, 1.3 million share options (cha Ching!) Very generous of mnkd. The 50k signing bonus was a nice touch.

1.3 Million share option, now I'd say there is an incentive to drive some sales, The salary, bonus, signing bonus and car allowance are spending change compared to the potential of what these options could do, and for a very large part Castanga has control of were this number ends up. 

[jay1ajay1a]

What do you make of his LinkedIn stating that he is working for both MNKD and Amgen?

Link

Michael Castagna
Chief Commercial Officer, Mannkind
Greater Los Angeles AreaBiotechnology
Current MannKind Corporation, Amgen
Previous Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sandoz
Education Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences