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Post by cgiscgis on Sept 7, 2016 9:45:17 GMT -5
Will Matt follow up on his claim that two international distributors contacted him the day after the Sanofi agreement termination? The upcoming conference will be interesting.
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Post by madog365 on Sept 7, 2016 9:52:44 GMT -5
Will Matt follow up on his claim that two international distributors contacted him the day after the Sanofi agreement termination? The upcoming conference will be interesting. The answer to your question is a simple no. Mannkind already answered this question in the FAQ so there is no need to get your hopes up for something that is not happening for a while. Here is what they said in case you forgot. "While discussions with international partners are ongoing, we are not able to project a timeline for any deal. We are necessarily concentrating on the US market first, both because of limited bandwidth and because it is unlikely that an attractive international deal would be finalized before we are able to demonstrate the viability of the product in the US." Have they demonstrated viability of the product in the US yet? No.
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Post by avichen on Sept 7, 2016 10:18:42 GMT -5
pumping it now will makes things worst...
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Post by kbrion77 on Sept 7, 2016 10:39:46 GMT -5
I'm embarrassed of the riches from this epic turnaround....
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Post by dictatorsaurus on Sept 7, 2016 10:48:19 GMT -5
What exactly are we waiting for or expecting?
This is a genuine questions. I think we've sat within this never ending vortex for so long we don't even know what the destination is.
Increase in scripts? Hasn't happened yet. And according to most, is not going to happen any time soon.
International deals? Not happening.
New formulations?
RLS? No one knows who they are or what they are going to bring to the table.
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Post by als57 on Sept 7, 2016 11:04:51 GMT -5
Unfortunately, having listened and believed Matt, I can now say I was taken "hook, line and sinker." I am now worried that the 50 reps that Mike C. hired, who were released from Astra Zeneca, are less than effective in bringing up the weekly scripts count. Mike is in the same boat, having invested "hard biting monies" so maybe he can find a way out of this mess, made courtesy of "Hacking Hakan and Matt." Hakan was "silly putty" in Sanofi's hands and Matt as CFO destroyed credibility with his overly optimistic statements, along poor financing decisions. Its unclear the role the Board of Directors playing in bringing the company to this point, but certainly there was blame.
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Post by slugworth008 on Sept 7, 2016 11:09:34 GMT -5
What exactly are we waiting for or expecting? This is a genuine questions. I think we've sat within this never ending vortex for so long we don't know even know what the destination is. Increase in scripts? Hasn't happened yet. And according to most, is not going to happen any time soon. International deals? Not happening. New formulations? RLS? No one knows who they are or what they are going to bring to the table. Agreed and agreed.
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Post by madog365 on Sept 7, 2016 11:31:37 GMT -5
Mike's approach has been to fix all of the operational issues under the sanofi launch first. Make sure patients can get Afrezza if they want it - make sure Doctors that will prescribe it can be found. In that respect,i believe we are in a better place then we have ever been.
But there is a big problem. One that Sanofi could have solved with a big fat marketing budget and chose not to. Awareness. Afrezza has none and unless the marketing strategy starts to reflect solutions to building awareness that this great drug exists there will be no uptick in RX. Sorry, but putting an ad into a few diabetes magazines isn't going to cut it. We need innovative solutions to get the general public talking. Plenty of great products have been buried because no one knew they existed.
The epi news was great, it even made it to the top of the news section on Reddit yesterday (a top 10 website on the internet in the US). We need more of that.
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Post by avichen on Sept 7, 2016 11:39:13 GMT -5
Yes, it worries me when I don't see any new happy user faces. no new posts on drug reviews...
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Post by brotherm1 on Sept 7, 2016 11:55:54 GMT -5
Mike's approach has been to fix all of the operational issues under the sanofi launch first. Make sure patients can get Afrezza if they want it - make sure Doctors that will prescribe it can be found. In that respect,i believe we are in a better place then we have ever been. But there is a big problem. One that Sanofi could have solved with a big fat marketing budget and chose not to. Awareness. Afrezza has none and unless the marketing strategy starts to reflect solutions to building awareness that this great drug exists there will be no uptick in RX. Sorry, but putting an ad into a few diabetes magazines isn't going to cut it. We need innovative solutions to get the general public talking. Plenty of great products have been buried because no one knew they existed. The epi news was great, it even made it to the top of the news section on Reddit yesterday (a top 10 website on the internet in the US). We need more of that. [ Regarding making patients aware of Afrezza, are not the 6,000 mailings going out to diabetics this month a good start?
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Post by sportsrancho on Sept 7, 2016 12:08:25 GMT -5
Is anyone on MNKD's FB page? What's going on there? I know my boss hired a PR person to run his page and doubled his awareness. I never see any tweets from MNKD saying ( like us on FB ) Not sure if that's the direction they want to go?
Would love to see Matt and Sam on CNBC's Squawk box or Half-Time.
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opera1
Newbie
Posts: 13
Sentiment: Long
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Post by opera1 on Sept 7, 2016 12:26:27 GMT -5
I think direct to consumer mailing along with personal contact from the company reps is one of the best forms of publicity, especially on a limited budget. You can target a specific doctors/patients/demographics/audience. A targeted audience of true baseline prescriptions will be established through these satisfied doctors and patients. The multiples will be exponential because of positive results achieved by those initial patients/doctors. Other patients/doctors will want to achieve the same results in dealing with this dreadful and debilitating disease. It's not just the disease itself, but it is the effects of this disease, circulation issues which cause amputations, heart issues- stroke and heart attack. It is truly dreadful and we are almost at epidemic proportions internationally. We are in a new world of advertising! Younger audiences do not have full subscriptions to Cable TV or Satellite TV. They use a Roku box to stream Netflix and Hulu in order to save money and avoid commercial interruptions. Even if you do have Cable/Satellite, how many people DVR their favorite shows just so they can fast forward through the commercials?? Most people do that! I know I do
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 12:31:59 GMT -5
I think direct to consumer mailing along with personal contact from the company reps is one of the best forms of publicity, especially on a limited budget. You can target a specific doctors/patients/demographics/audience. A targeted audience of true baseline prescriptions will be established through these satisfied doctors and patients. The multiples will be exponential because of positive results achieved by those initial patients/doctors. Other patients/doctors will want to achieve the same results in dealing with this dreadful and debilitating disease. It's not just the disease itself, but it is the effects of this disease, circulation issues which cause amputations, heart issues- stroke and heart attack. It is truly dreadful and we are almost at epidemic proportions internationally. We are in a new world of advertising! Younger audiences do not have full subscriptions to Cable TV or Satellite TV. They use a Roku box to stream Netflix and Hulu in order to save money and avoid commercial interruptions. Even if you do have Cable/Satellite, how many people DVR their favorite shows just so they can fast forward through the commercials?? Most people do that! I know I do I do direct to consumer mailing for my business. Its incredibly expensive, and the response rate is very low. We had to switch from first class (traditional mail speed) to standard because postage has gotten so expensive. Then you have to pay for the data, and the mail piece.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 12:34:46 GMT -5
Unfortunately, having listened and believed Matt, I can now say I was taken "hook, line and sinker." I am now worried that the 50 reps that Mike C. hired, who were released from Astra Zeneca, are less than effective in bringing up the weekly scripts count. Mike is in the same boat, having invested "hard biting monies" so maybe he can find a way out of this mess, made courtesy of "Hacking Hakan and Matt." Hakan was "silly putty" in Sanofi's hands and Matt as CFO destroyed credibility with his overly optimistic statements, along poor financing decisions. Its unclear the role the Board of Directors playing in bringing the company to this point, but certainly there was blame. You tap into some really important items. A lot of discussion around matt and his role over the last few years. He's a believer in what Al started, a believer in Al, and a believer in afrezza. He's going to continue being that way regardless of the next few months and when he speaks, it's from this position that he presents himself and his information. So from my view it's not that you were taken, it's that you now see the situation differently and no longer believe what matt is saying. That's the only change because everything else is pretty much the same it's been for the last two years (in big picture terms that is - afrezza isnt' selling this year nor did it in 2015, there's been movement but mnkd isn't going anywhere yet). Regarding the sales reps, the whole industry has been experiencing a decline and in some ways a boom all at the same time (http://www.worldclassrd.org/content/decline-pharmaceutical-industry). The decline portion comes in the form of much less low hanging fruit left to "discover" and market that discovery. So there's been downsizing on the R&D side as a whole. The result of that decline is less new blockbuster drugs to sell and more clones and rehashes so there's less and less of a need to maintain large sales forces (http://www.fiercepharma.com/sales-and-marketing/pharma-sales-force-took-a-hit-north-america-and-europe-2013-new-report-shows). The sales folks that mnkd picked up? Are they veterans to the industry or are they transients job hopping? Mike clearly has energy, focus, knowledge, experience and the personality to handle what is probably the toughest job ever at the moment. But mnkd didnt' have to steal these folks away. It's a tough industry these days and people are always looking for work. If it was a boom cycle and there were no professionals available to hire and mnkd was able to pull these folks in? Well, I would say that would be a different story. But given the reality of the situation, it's equally as possible that these folks are simply collecting a paycheck for however long it's available. Time will tell. My last comment is in reference to the BOD and bringing the company to this point. MNKD was Al's baby. He invested large sums of his own money to bring mnkd to the point of FDA approval. Al never imagined he would go it alone when it came to sales, it was always about obtaining a partnership. Look back through the history of his comments - it's always been about partnering. Therefore, he didn't build out a salesforce, marketing dept or general corporate infrastructure to handle what mnkd is trying to handle right now. There was no plan for additional large sums of financing like mnkd is now facing because that's what the partnership was supposed to cover. The problem is, and it's very broad, but the problem is the marketplace. Everyone wants their payday and the impact that has on individual pocketbooks and budgets is one big squeeze on everyone's budget to the point of having to make hard choices. Insurance company's are fighting tooth and nail to keep expensive drugs out of their formularies. Doctors are now inundated with patients who are now aware and saddled with the real (or highly inflated) cost of prescriptions drugs. And way to many people thinks it's the gov's job to somehow cover all these costs (which it is not imo). The marketplace has been transformed by the ACA due to the pushing of costs down to the patient level instead of hiding it in layers like in the past. Hell, even people are now aware that the drug cards used by companies for many years now to help with copays is nothing more than a scam to force the insurance industry to pay through dark channels and hidden layers (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/the-real-reason-big-pharma-wants-to-help-pay-for-your-prescription). I think matt was handed a massive undertaking that was not predicted or planned for after years and years of struggling just to get to this point. Their partnership flopped which Al envisioned as an integral part of afrezza's future and mnkd is left without a chair to sit in. They literally have to build out everything from scratch since nobody will partner with them, well, at least not on terms acceptable to mnkd. And the marketplace is beyond brutal for new drugs just like afrezza. There is a lot of dynamics that are coming together and much of it spells trouble for all new drugs coming to market, unless they are perfect, cheap, and can be administered in the allotted 15 minutes of face time with your doc. My goodness, I hope someone fixes the state of our world sometime soon.
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Post by madog365 on Sept 7, 2016 12:40:43 GMT -5
Mike's approach has been to fix all of the operational issues under the sanofi launch first. Make sure patients can get Afrezza if they want it - make sure Doctors that will prescribe it can be found. In that respect,i believe we are in a better place then we have ever been. But there is a big problem. One that Sanofi could have solved with a big fat marketing budget and chose not to. Awareness. Afrezza has none and unless the marketing strategy starts to reflect solutions to building awareness that this great drug exists there will be no uptick in RX. Sorry, but putting an ad into a few diabetes magazines isn't going to cut it. We need innovative solutions to get the general public talking. Plenty of great products have been buried because no one knew they existed. The epi news was great, it even made it to the top of the news section on Reddit yesterday (a top 10 website on the internet in the US). We need more of that. [ Regarding making patients aware of Afrezza, are not the 6,000 mailings going out to diabetics this month a good start? Unfortunately no, direct mail is thrown directly into the trash by most. We need a compelling story for PR which is severely lacking right now. Start getting relationships with thought leaders in the diabetes space and get them on the PR circuit or creating content(interviews, videos, social media, blogs). A lot more patient testimonials - people want what others are having success with. Afrezza has some great advocates already that are posting on twitter but their reach is limited to only those who are searching for Afrezza (which is basically just investors). I understand the approach right now is not DTC and focused on the endo's but i fear that without patient demand the endos will be too slow to ever recommend Afrezza as a first option. My two cents.
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