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Post by lojothehus on May 1, 2017 11:10:46 GMT -5
I just had the opportunity to speak with 2 new physicians. one starting an internal med residency the other anesthesiology. I asked them if the have ever heard of Afrezza. Imagine my disbelief when neither were aware. I did provide them with a quick inservice. Happenned to have the inhaler in my pocket to show them. This is failure on mnkd's part since reps should be providing some sort of inservice at teaching institutions. Its is an ideal drug for use in association with cgm and those most in tune to new drugs are still not aware. Hence the need for TV Ads. See my suggestion above. Whatever they are doing IS NOT WORKING! Demand needs to come from the PATIENT! Time to put down the the sales push Kool Aid and get the product in front of the eyes of the consumer. I have been saying what you are saying for some time now. Mankind is bent on taking a conservative approach that isn't working. They need to step outside the box. Buy some advertisements; a simple billboard with a depiction of a line going through a needle......; a picture of the kid with all of the needles stuck in him.....no needles. Once people start seeing these things, they will inquire.
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Post by mnholdem on May 1, 2017 11:16:10 GMT -5
I just had the opportunity to speak with 2 new physicians. one starting an internal med residency the other anesthesiology. I asked them if the have ever heard of Afrezza. Imagine my disbelief when neither were aware. I did provide them with a quick inservice. Happenned to have the inhaler in my pocket to show them. I would like to "happen to have the inhaler in my pocket" to share when the opportunity arises. Any thoughts on how someone who is not a PWD and does not have a prescription might obtain a couple inhalers? You could attend a JDRF event near you where MannKind has an Afrezza booth set up. They usually hand out Sample Dreamboats with the red training cartridges.
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Post by porkini on May 1, 2017 11:22:57 GMT -5
I would like to "happen to have the inhaler in my pocket" to share when the opportunity arises. Any thoughts on how someone who is not a PWD and does not have a prescription might obtain a couple inhalers? You could attend a JDRF event near you where MannKind has an Afrezza booth set up. They usually hand out Sample Dreamboats with the red training cartridges. I started looking at the JDRF events scheduled for somewhere remotely close. It appears that east-central IL is a "desert" in regards to this so far... I'll keep looking though. Thanks for the idea!
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Post by seanismorris on May 1, 2017 11:26:28 GMT -5
Waiting for the FDA is like waiting for Congress to pass a budget...
MannKind, just run the damn thing. If the FDA wants to change the size of the font of the warning, it will take another 6month to get the commercial approved. And, by that time MannKind will no longer exist.
We are way past being cautious of govt bureaucracy...
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Post by tiberious on May 1, 2017 12:39:45 GMT -5
Waiting for the FDA is like waiting for Congress to pass a budget... MannKind, just run the damn thing. If the FDA wants to change the size of the font of the warning, it will take another 6month to get the commercial approved. And, by that time MannKind will no longer exist. We are way past being cautious of govt bureaucracy... Agreed.... Run the damn thing already. Also, production costs aside, why is it that I see a million or so My Pillow or Flex Seal commercials EVERY DAY? How do these companies or the UnTuckIt shirt guy get all that air time in the Tri-State? So frustrating to see these commercials over and over and yet we have this BS conservative approach whereby the percentage of the population that knows about Afrezza is next to nothing. Advice to MNKD Management and BOD..... If nobody knows about your product well guess what.. NOBODY WILL SEEK IT OUT! GP's and Endo's certainly wont promote your product so what are you going to do? Not rocket science gentlemen... Finally, i view it as pathetic that we still need to play nice with the agency. They never played nice with MKC. Ever.
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Post by madog365 on May 1, 2017 12:55:03 GMT -5
Hence the need for TV Ads. See my suggestion above. Whatever they are doing IS NOT WORKING! Demand needs to come from the PATIENT! Time to put down the the sales push Kool Aid and get the product in front of the eyes of the consumer. Absolutely spot on! I've been emailing them to get DTC commercial ads started for a couple years now.. First the excuse was that Sanofi controlled all marketing, then as soon as they got marketing rights back the excuse became that the tv commercials are not targeted enough and cost too much money. Sorry, but that is a BAD excuse. Diabetes is far reaching enough where almost every person in the US knows somebody affected by the disease. Targeting ENDOS alone is the mistake Sanofi made and now Mannkind is making the same mistake again. The definition of insanity. We want everyone (not just people with diabetes) to hear about Afrezza, the rest will be accomplished through word of mouth. The management team almost laughed at the idea of a super bowl commercial. 5M dollars for a commercial? Waste of money? No, i think the waste of money is burning 10M dollars each month to send out a salesforce that no doctor wants to see at their doorstep. For a $5M Superbowl commercial you would have the entire country aware of "that new inhaled insulin Afrezza". SB commercial being just an example here, there are other far reaching media events/vehicles.
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Post by nylefty on May 1, 2017 13:04:05 GMT -5
Waiting for the FDA is like waiting for Congress to pass a budget... Agreed.... Run the damn thing already. Also, production costs aside, why is it that I see a million or so My Pillow or Flex Seal commercials EVERY DAY? How do these companies or the UnTuckIt shirt guy get all that air time in the Tri-State? The MyPillow and FlexSeal commercials are Per Inquiry (PI) spots -- the stations or cable networks that run them get paid a specified amount each time a viewer calls a toll free number and orders a product. Since you can't just call and order Afrezza without a prescription, PI advertising wouldn't work for MannKind.
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Post by akemp3000 on May 1, 2017 13:08:41 GMT -5
I'm equally frustrated but just as a reminder, the reason for not running TV commercials earlier was because they did not want a lot of first time users trying Afrezza then dropping it because of the titration and insurance coverage issues that were more prevalent than they are now. Now that these obstacles are declining, it's absolutely time for TV commercials...and management did say they were planned for late in the first half of 2017.
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Post by tiberious on May 1, 2017 13:11:05 GMT -5
I've been emailing them to get DTC commercial ads started for a couple years now.. First the excuse was that Sanofi controlled all marketing, then as soon as they got marketing rights back the excuse became that the tv commercials are not targeted enough and cost too much money. Sorry, but that is a BAD excuse. Diabetes is far reaching enough where almost every person in the US knows somebody affected by the disease. Targeting ENDOS alone is the mistake Sanofi made and now Mannkind is making the same mistake again. The definition of insanity. We want everyone (not just people with diabetes) to hear about Afrezza, the rest will be accomplished through word of mouth. The management team almost laughed at the idea of a super bowl commercial. 5M dollars for a commercial? Waste of money? No, i think the waste of money is burning 10M dollars each month to send out a salesforce that no doctor wants to see at their doorstep. For a $5M Superbowl commercial you would have the entire country aware of "that new inhaled insulin Afrezza". SB commercial being just an example here, there are other far reaching media events/vehicles. Penny Wise but Pound foolish they are... 5M versus all the Market Cap lost since marketing rights returned. I'll leave that for all math wizards among us.
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Post by matt on May 1, 2017 13:11:28 GMT -5
Also, production costs aside, why is it that I see a million or so My Pillow or Flex Seal commercials EVERY DAY? How do these companies or the UnTuckIt shirt guy get all that air time in the Tri-State? At one point I did some financial consulting work for a media company that owned a lot of local television stations and I learned a lot about their revenue model. The answer is that the station provides the air time for free and the phone number to call shown at the end of the commercial is tied to the station that shows the commercial (each station has a different one). Order revenue is split between the stations showing the ad and the manufacturer. That works well for a product that you are only going to order once or twice; how many Ronco Rotissere Ovens are you going to buy in a lifetime for just three easy payments of $39.95? Here you need a prescription to sell the product which is not the same business model. The problem is that paying somebody to promote usage of a medical product or service that is reimbursed by Medicare falls under prohibitions imposed by the Stark Act (and most states have a similar law that applies to any reimbursed healthcare expenditure from private insurance). The gatekeeper is the physician who is presumed to prescribe only that which is medically necessary, and the physician cannot be compensated for writing the prescription except as part of the normal doctor-patient relationship. Whether a drug company could spiff television stations for running commercials in a particular geography in exchange for NRx filled by pharmacies in specific zip codes would be a novel idea, but one that has not been tried to my knowledge. That might be an interesting strategy to try in an area where most of the doctors are in "no see" practices where the salesmen cannot get through the door. Would local stations be willing to rely on Symphony or IMS data to track sales? I don't think anybody knows that answer.
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Post by dreamboatcruise on May 1, 2017 13:19:21 GMT -5
I'm equally frustrated but just as a reminder, the reason for not running TV commercials earlier was because they did not want a lot of first time users trying Afrezza then dropping it because of the titration and insurance coverage issues that were more prevalent than they are now. Now that these obstacles are declining, it's absolutely time for TV commercials...and management did say they were planned for late in the first half of 2017. Though it would appear that time has now shifted to very early second half, since management has said we'll first see the ads with Revered and the air date has now been announced as July.
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Post by nylefty on May 1, 2017 13:39:18 GMT -5
For a $5M Superbowl commercial you would have the entire country aware of "that new inhaled insulin Afrezza". SB commercial being just an example here, there are other far reaching media events/vehicles. Penny Wise but Pound foolish they are... 5M versus all the Market Cap lost since marketing rights returned. I'll leave that for all math wizards among us. 5 million was for a 30 second spot -- but it would be impossible to include both a positive message for Afrezza and all the FDA mandated warnings in 30 seconds. Have you ever seen a 30 second spot for a prescription drug that had to include FDA warnings? I haven't. So a 60 second spot would have cost 10 million for just the air time and another 5 million or more for production costs, agency fees, music rights, talent payments, etc. And yes, it's generally accepted in the advertising business that 60 second spots on Superbowl telecasts cost at least 15 million dollars.
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Post by factspls88 on May 1, 2017 15:13:41 GMT -5
Matt said that the commercial is with the FDA for approval. That should be enough confirmation that this is happening. When I was in the consumer products business, every commercial had to be approved by internal legal and the networks to ensure that claims were supported by data, so this is no surprise to me re mnkd. perhaps the need for fda approval is needed because it coincides with a clean label. Maybe we will get a 1-2 punch here ? I would love it if what you say is true but last time the label was spoken about September was the time frame for a decision. That said, anything's possible but I have learned not to get my hopes up with this stock.
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Post by sportsrancho on May 1, 2017 15:25:06 GMT -5
EXAS CEO said the one regret was not starting TV sooner. Look at them now!
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Post by madog365 on May 1, 2017 16:05:37 GMT -5
Penny Wise but Pound foolish they are... 5M versus all the Market Cap lost since marketing rights returned. I'll leave that for all math wizards among us. 5 million was for a 30 second spot -- but it would be impossible to include both a positive message for Afrezza and all the FDA mandated warnings in 30 seconds. Have you ever seen a 30 second spot for a prescription drug that had to include FDA warnings? I haven't. So a 60 second spot would have cost 10 million for just the air time and another 5 million or more for production costs, agency fees, music rights, talent payments, etc. And yes, it's generally accepted in the advertising business that 60 second spots on Superbowl telecasts cost at least 15 million dollars. So 1.5 months of cash burn? Is it better to not spend any marketing dollars and simply watch the ship sink slowly supporting an ineffective salesforce that visits doctors and drops off samples. DO you think we'd still be under 300 scripts per week if the entire country was aware of afrezza in february? Maybe patient demand at the doctors offices would have forced the hand of docs to try and prescribe, maybe it wouldn't. It's all anecdotal anyways.
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