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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 22, 2019 13:47:30 GMT -5
That is my email and I welcome any communication with our shareholders. This thread has gone on too long and I wanted to set a few facts straight, but don’t expect me to read the comments or respond via this thread again. 1) VDEX has been claiming for 4 years ... ... Sincerely, Michael Castagna That was a fantastic post for a 'newbie' poster.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 22, 2019 9:31:23 GMT -5
How about UTHR is just overvalued, with year over year declines in both revenue and earnings? Not to mention one of its phase 3 trials failed a couple of months back. Personally, I doubt Mannkind has anything to do with the UTHR price decline. Mnkdfann - do you have a feel for what fair value is for UTHR? What price would you buy at? I do not. I haven't really followed it, except for having read a few articles about it recently.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 21, 2019 14:34:44 GMT -5
Update email from Bill. Dear MannKind Shareholder: ... We have had responses from over 100 shareholders in the first seven days, not including friends and family members of ours. Those shareholders represent between 5.4 and 11.8 million shares. This is between about 3% and 7% of shares outstanding. Before you become discouraged, consider this: these results don’t include institutional shareholders which obviously hold larger blocks of shares. It is also, a “big ask” for people to read a 7-page letter, a 7-page proposal and then go and fill out a form. We know, because we’ve heard from many people who haven’t filled out the form but who have communicated supportively to us by phone, text or email. Some revealed that they didn’t see the response link in the letter (because they didn’t read that far-that’s understandable). We also did no promotion of the letter beyond posting it online. ... Please contact shareholders you know and have them respond by filling out the investor response form at: www.vdexdiabetes.com/investor-response-formI'm sure every one of those (effectively anonymous) responses was accurate, true, and in good faith. I was speaking with Buzz Lichtjahr just this morning, and he is onboard with his 2 million shares!
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 20, 2019 21:41:22 GMT -5
I'll mention as a courtesy that your link is to a new article (not blog post), that does earn SO some cents per click. That is a wild article, though. It would be crazy if his notion came to pass.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 20, 2019 21:21:19 GMT -5
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 20, 2019 21:17:27 GMT -5
Considering that links to the VDEX videos are posted here, on Twitter, on ST, and who knows where else, they have remarkably few views (IMO).
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 20, 2019 18:50:58 GMT -5
Yes, it is. What is your point? Welcome to the world where governments can set drug prices. To be fair, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services probably pays more than any other single provider in the US and thus they should be entitled to the largest discount. There are very few competitive industries where the biggest customer doesn't get the best price. If a company doesn't like this arrangement they don't have to sell to the government at all, the government cannot compel a company to do business with it, but if the company chooses to take government money then there are price strings attached. At least in the US the price only applies if the reference customer has comparable terms and conditions, which means time for payment, quantities ordered and other factors. If the government does not order as much as a PBM or does not pay as promptly, then the PBM can get a better price than the government. That is fair. However, it is much worse in other countries. Many countries have implemented pricing methods that limit drug prices to the prevailing market price in a basket of named countries and the manufacturer must disclose those prices. Japan does it, several European countries do it, and most developing countries have started doing this. The problem is that a price discount in one country has a ripple effect across the world that causes the price in all countries to drop. Some pricing formulas are reasonable, while some are stacked against the company. Brazil looks for the lowest price based on the active ingredient in nine specific countries, but one of those named countries is Greece where the drug market is a pricing disaster. Humulin R and Novolin R which both have a retail price of about $150 / 1000 unit vial in the US have a government enforced import price into Brazil that is about $9.60 at current exchange rates. Injector pens are priced about double that amount, which is no where near the $500 retail price in the US. In turn, the government set import price of $9.60 is used to set the maximum price charged to pharmacies (about $12.00) and the maximum consumer price pharmacies can charge (about $16.60 including a 20% sales tax), and government entities in Brazil pay 20% than the permitted import price (about $7.70). It remains to be seen how Brazil will price Afrezza, but the company preaches that Afrezza is "just insulin" so expect the authorities to start with the prevailing prices for recombinant human insulins and add a small premium for the convenience of the delivery method they way they do for pens. Increasingly, government across the world exchange price information to insure that they are getting the best possible price. Then there are place like Spain where it is illegal not to fill a purchase order that comes from a government entity. That is fine if the entity is the local government in Madrid that tends to pay their invoices in about 180 days, but not such a great deal if the order comes from one of the poor provinces that take 18-24 months to pay. No matter how bad you think the market prices and formulary access is for Afrezza in the US, remember that every other country in the world is worse and the growing number with government price controls are much worse. Quote: "the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services probably pays more than any other single provider in the US and thus they should be entitled to the largest discount." Reply: it is my understanding by law in USA, the only agency that can negotiate drug prices is medicare. Something about some law put on the books to this regard. Hence, the rebate/kickback system is used the "for profit health insurance companies" in the USA.I do not believe your conclusion is correct, as the private sector (typically PBMs and Health Insurers) is free to negotiate drug prices. The government IS restricted from negotiating (for a large part) for a number of reasons.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 23:38:46 GMT -5
Mannkind longs may need to pay attention to the trend of the close of January 2020, 2021 $1.50 Calls. It was $.25 and $.50 today. That is awesome news, I know somebody that just doubled their money, it wasn’t me but I am very happy for them! Given the MNKD share price over the last 6 months or so, offhand I have trouble seeing how the price on those could have doubled unless it was due to a change in the estimated volatility implicit in the call option price. And that is certainly a possibility. I see today's volatility on the 2020s is over 100%. In any case, IMO your friend shouldn't spend all the paper profits just yet. The volume today on those particular options was minuscule, and if your friend has more than 10 or so options they might have some trouble unloading them at anything near today's price.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 19:40:48 GMT -5
Who was the "Proposal to MannKind Board of Directors" dated "June 7, 2019" actually sent to?
To Mike? Rose?
Is it possible that Mike (or Rose or whoever) made (at least some) members of the Board aware of the proposal, and enough said the proposal was not something they wanted to formally consider in a Board meeting?
The Mannkind 2.0 plan someone posted a while back apparently talked about developing clinics. If implementation of that plan was rejected previously by the Board (as it appears it was), could that be (at least a part) of the reason why the Board is not interested.
I know we keep being told the Board was not told about the plan. But I think that does not rule out the scenarios I present above. Presumably there is some gatekeeper mechanism in place that keeps the Board from having to consider every uninvited proposal sent to it. Especially if it is a reworking of something they already rejected.
Like many, I am just trying to get a handle on what happened / is happening.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 17:36:27 GMT -5
Any info on when the pricing decision will be made in Brazil? That’s a great question? How did they get their first order without pricing being resolved? Yes, "first order of BIOMM received" is disturbingly vague. For all we know, it could be a few dozen sample packs to hand out to local endos / docs. Realistically, how big an order would BIOMM place without first having some assurance the price will be something they can work with.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 11:11:47 GMT -5
I wish Bill (it is Bill, right?) would mix the videos up a bit, for regular viewers. Like the Doonesbury comic used to do with the panels in a strip. Inexplicably make small changes in the fore or background from panel to panel. Maybe Bill could do the same from video to video. Change the position of the tree each time? Bill, if you are reading, how about a stuffed gorilla starting to climb the tree in the next video? Then move him up a bit in each video.
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 11:03:17 GMT -5
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 19, 2019 0:44:44 GMT -5
Something interesting has happened when I clicked on the ingram link. When you get the 404 error, Click on the Hope Page Link under the error itself and you are redirected to a zynxhealthcom.stage2.emagineusa.net/ page that also does not work, but it has nothing to do with Mannkind. Curious. Perhaps when the developer of the Mannkind site was working on it, they grabbed a page template from the Zynx Health site of the day? And failed to update some links. Maybe the original developer did both sites? www.zynxhealth.com/
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 18, 2019 20:55:53 GMT -5
Since I last checked: www.mannkindcorp.com/garrett-ingram/"404 – Page Not Found" I hope the Chief Technology Officer got a nice bonus for getting on top of this web site 'fix'. I mean, it is sort of a fix. Ingram's page is gone. But it should probably redirect to a more interesting page than "404".
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Post by mnkdfann on Jun 18, 2019 17:35:08 GMT -5
There is one reason for going to these types of conferences, financing. It's not for finding strategic partners or trying to persuade the medical community. So yeah, the fact that Mike keeps parading around on these events yet pulls out of ADA is worrisome. I'm reminded of this, from a few months back: seekingalpha.com/article/4231518-mannkind-corporation-mnkd-ceo-michael-castagna-hosts-investor-conference-call-transcript"I feel very good about the overall process and I feel very good about our future and our employees are very excited about where things are going. So hope you understand some of that. I know it’s not everything you want to hear, but I also want to be transparent and direct with where we think the things are going and the future of the company. So we're excited. We think the market is very volatile this year and we're just glad we don't have to be in the capital markets, it was a significant distraction on my end. I probably spent over 20 red eyes going to New York in the last year. So I don't have to spend time doing that."
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