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Post by compound26 on Nov 9, 2016 18:18:35 GMT -5
weehaw. I saw matt type so many times no settlement. He is WRONG. Cover. great news! The settlement is about what I have expected. I had expected $50 million cash settlement + forgiveness of debt. Well the settlement comes a bit below my expectation, but was within the ball of my expectation. Glad that Matt P. delivered. Right on time! I think many people underestimated Matt's skills and resolution (in making Afrezza a success). Following was my communication with another member on this board about a month ago. "If there was any negotiation of settlement at all, that will probably end up with a forgiveness of debt + some payment of cash. I would imagine that cash would be around $50 million. As Mannkind would probably ask for $100+ million. Sanofi would probably offer $25 million and they will then end up agreeing with each other at $50 million (+ forgiveness of debt). " |
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Post by compound26 on Nov 8, 2016 17:05:13 GMT -5
Another good example of someone with CGM and active on diabetic forum being an ideal consumer of Afrezza: "from 8.1 to 5.9 A1C in 3 months time?"Wondering when we will have enough exposure of great results of Afrezza to cause a tipping point for much wider adoption of Afrezza. Allen3 1h Thanks Sam. Sometimes you just have to try it to believe it. I want people to understand it's not always a problem with them, it's their insulin. I have learned SO much from tudiabetes.org since I got active again. Thanks to all who share information on here to help others. I mean, from 8.1 to 5.9 A1C in 3 months time? Seriously? After years and years of having a high A1C. All thanks to a CGM and Afrezza. I had all but given up. www.tudiabetes.org/forum/t/tresiba-basal-insulin/50202/556?u=charles5 |
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Post by compound26 on Nov 2, 2016 17:59:09 GMT -5
rockstarrick the link does not work. Could you kindly fix it and re-post? Works fine for me, click link, select PDF file, pg 31 I see. Thanks! |
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Post by compound26 on Nov 2, 2016 17:35:49 GMT -5
rockstarrick the link does not work. Could you kindly fix it and re-post?
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Post by compound26 on Nov 1, 2016 18:49:24 GMT -5
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Post by compound26 on Nov 1, 2016 11:33:14 GMT -5
MNHoldem - Please keep going. I certainly value your perspective. Thank you for those. I second that, and CCI's comment about MN. Keep up the good work, man ... I mean MN. strongly support. Please keep going. |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 31, 2016 13:51:49 GMT -5
Speaking of user experience... The scariest thing for me is that after thousands of new scripts, there are only about 600 patients (based on monthly refills numbers). You're wrongly assuming that all patients refill prescriptions every month when the truth is that many, if not most, refill every three months. For example, it's cheaper for me to refill my prescriptions every three months through my Caremark mail order plan than it would be to refill them every month at my local pharmacy. I would think some even refill less frequent than every three months, if they only use Afrezza for corrections. I recall Sam and Terry on Tudiabetes.org probably use one box or less of Afrezza each month. Here is something funny that Sam said: www.tudiabetes.org/forum/t/emergency-preparedness/56688/29I currently have 17 pens of tresiba / lantus / levemir (I can definitely ration to 1 pen / month in a pinch 15 pens of various rapids (I could easily ration each pen to last 2 months (I suppose I better request a novolog refill to add a little more ) 10.5 boxes of afrezza--- would last essentially forever if I was rationing and avoiding carbs
And 12 vials of R / NPH / 70/30 I have no doubt I could get by for 3+ years in an emergency.... Bear in mind I could blast through that much insulin in a big hurry too it ENTIRELY depends how many carbs I eat |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 27, 2016 17:20:02 GMT -5
peppy I know it is not easy. As mannmade has put it in another thread, the education process is a slow process, whether you are educating the doctors or the PWDs themselves. In this case, this is especially the case as we are dealing with a paradigm-shifting product and the incumbent won't give up their interests without a tough fight. For forums like tudiabetes.org, since it is online forum devoted to PWDs, the job falls on the actual Afrezza users to spread the words there. We non-diabetics should generally refrain from messing with their discussions. However, IMHO, with Sam, Terry, Mike and a few other pioneer Afrezza users there, I feel that the Tudiabetes.org members (to the extent they know something about Afrezza) now generally have a better and more positive view of Afrezza than, say, a year ago. I would also encourage each of you to do what you can to encourage any Afrezza user you personally know to step up their efforts to educate other PWDs about Afrezza. We are starting from such a low level (in terms of TRx) right now, each additional converted Afrezza user will be a small yet significant progress towards our ultimate success.
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Post by compound26 on Oct 27, 2016 16:57:35 GMT -5
Some other observations I have (purely my personal opinion) are that: 1. Afrezza is mainly patient drivenIn almost all cases where an afrezza prescription is written, it appears a PWD has asked for Afrezza. So while education the doctors is still a key and very important, it appears the decisive factor of increasing prescriptions is to raise awareness of Afrezza among PWDs. So direct to patient campaign is the key to increase prescription for Afrezza.It appears Mannkind is getting this and doing their part. Hope they can keep working and improving in this respect. 2. who are the ideal potential Afrezza usersBased on what have observed, the people who are interested in Afrezza tend to have the following characteristics: a. They care about managing diabetes and want to have a good A1C number. As some posters have observed, if someone does not care about this, it is difficult to get them interested in trying out Afrezza. b. They have pretty good knowledge about the disease and the state of art of the tools managing the diseaseThis is related to item (a). Otherwise, they probably will never find out about Afrezza. c. They have the patience to take the time to dial it in It appears it takes some time and effort to dial in Afrezza (which may include tinkering with basal as well). So it appears any dexcom CGM user probably satisfies the above conditions. Plus, getting a CGM will definitely help a PWD dial in Afrezza and getting better A1C number. They as a group are much more likely (compared with the PWDs as a general group) to be interested and become successful in trying out and dialing in Afrezza.
From this perspective, a Dexcom/Afrezza co-promotion makes perfect sense. As Sam Finta has pointed out long time ago, this will be real time monitoring +real time treatment, which probably signifies the new age of diabetes management. However, not sure if Matt and Mike (michaelcastagna ) can make this happen. One thing could be helpful is that Al Mann used to be mentor to Kevin Sayer (CEO of Dexcom).
I would also add that, IMHO, any active member of an online diabetes forum (such as Tudiabetes.org) probably also satisfies the above conditions (as ideal target consumer for Afrezza). These people care about their disease and are eager to learn on new treatment developments. And if they have problems in dialing in, they will more likely engage other members' help. Let's look at Tudiabetes.org for example. Look at some of the topics that are being discussed as of this moment: a. Tresiba Basal insulin b. Anyone take the wrong dose of insulin? c. Painful diabetic neuropathy and my 1st Endocrinologist visit what should i ask and/or tell? d. What to do before eating with high blood sugar e. Complications: has anyone ever reversed them? f. Losing Weight for Type 1 g. NON-Flatliners (Problem Solving) Thread Aren't those subjects regarding which some of our Afrezza users have a lot of positive things to say (about their experience with Afrezza)? For example, it will be very powerful if IM_TypeOne tell the story (see the tweet message below) herself to the Tudiabetes.org members in connection with the question: Complications: has anyone ever reversed them?And how about any of those Afrezza users (in the following post) share their own stories to other PWDs while directly responding to such PWDs' questions? www.afrezzajustbreathe.com/afrezza-less-complications/Sam, Terry, Mike P and a few others have been doing a phenomenal job educating the members of Tudiabetes.org on Afrezza. However, there are not enough of them to offer such help. So right now, there are no Afrezza users' input in most of those topics. We need many more Afrezza users to chime in to offer their experiences on Afrezza. Think about it, the members posting an issue there often is somewhat frustrated with some aspects of their existing treatment and they are asking for help. Are that the idea opportunities to share with them the many benefits of Afrezza (that in many cases will be able to solves their issues (like IOB, wide swings of BG levels, etc.) And when an Afrezza user chime in, he/she can potentially reach many members at the same time. Can Matt and Mike (michaelcastagna ) think of someway to really encourage our loyal Afrezza users to step up and chime in on those diabetes forums? Tudiabetes.org is just one of them. But I am sure there are other such forums. IMHO, as long as such users sincerely and honestly share their experience on Afrezzam with a view to help others, their participation will be more than welcome by other members. Plus, (a) there won't be any financial cost to Mannkind (so it's free!) and (b) the Afrezza users themselves are not bound by the FDA labels in telling their stories. |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 27, 2016 12:14:03 GMT -5
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Post by compound26 on Oct 27, 2016 11:14:46 GMT -5
Yes. Same here. I the investor page loads more or less, as some have noted, if you go directly to that page. But nothing else. Investor page is hosted on a different website. Try typing in the full address of the site: www.mannkindcorp.com It loads fine for me. |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 27, 2016 10:32:06 GMT -5
Awareness of Afrezza throughout the USA was abysmal under Sanofi-Aventis. Since MannKind took control of marketing the inhalable insulin in April 2016, multiple sources confirm that internet searches for Afrezza are on the rise.
That confirms my "human" and "unscientific" observation that awareness of Afrezza is growing in social media under Mannkind control (compared with Sanofi's control). |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 26, 2016 10:51:09 GMT -5
Some other observations I have (purely my personal opinion) are that: 1. Afrezza is mainly patient drivenIn almost all cases where an afrezza prescription is written, it appears a PWD has asked for Afrezza. So while education the doctors is still a key and very important, it appears the decisive factor of increasing prescriptions is to raise awareness of Afrezza among PWDs. So direct to patient campaign is the key to increase prescription for Afrezza.It appears Mannkind is getting this and doing their part. Hope they can keep working and improving in this respect. 2. who are the ideal potential Afrezza usersBased on what have observed, the people who are interested in Afrezza tend to have the following characteristics: a. They care about managing diabetes and want to have a good A1C number. As some posters have observed, if someone does not care about this, it is difficult to get them interested in trying out Afrezza. b. They have pretty good knowledge about the disease and the state of art of the tools managing the diseaseThis is related to item (a). Otherwise, they probably will never find out about Afrezza. c. They have the patience to take the time to dial it in It appears it takes some time and effort to dial in Afrezza (which may include tinkering with basal as well). So it appears any dexcom CGM user probably satisfies the above conditions. Plus, getting a CGM will definitely help a PWD dial in Afrezza and getting better A1C number. They as a group are much more likely (compared with the PWDs as a general group) to be interested and become successful in trying out and dialing in Afrezza.
From this perspective, a Dexcom/Afrezza co-promotion makes perfect sense. However, not sure if Matt and Mike (michaelcastagna ) can make this happen. One thing could be helpful is that Al Mann used to be mentor to Kevin Sayer (CEO of Dexcom).
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Post by compound26 on Oct 26, 2016 10:34:27 GMT -5
I am taking CCI's suggestion and created a separate thread on this. While cash and runway remains the top concern for Mannkind, I do feel that progress is being made in a few fronts. So here is the plus and minus of Mannkind's state of union right now based on my observation: Minus:
1. low cash reserve;
2. slow ramp of TRs in relaunch of Afrezza
plus:
1. seems like insurance coverage is improving.
Below is what Brian in Tudiabetes.org observed. Brian is a moderator in Tudiabetes.org and I think his comments are generally well-thought, objective and to the point. www.tudiabetes.org/forum/t/whos-tried-tresiba/55665/209?u=charles5"One needs to be careful about "insurance coverage." Afrezza for the most part has moved from being considered investigation and experimental and being excluded from formularies. But it doesn't mean that it has good insurance coverage. It usually takes a year or two for a new "me too" drug to move from branded non-preferred status to preferred status. And this is a big change drug. My insurance (Aetna) still considers Afrezza branded non-preferred and may still do so for some time. This means that I pay 50%. The going rate for a kit of 30 4 unit cartridges and 60 8 unit cartridges is $300. I would probably need two kits a month based on my initial experience, so Afrezza would cost me about $300/month or about $3,600/year. I currently pay $160/year for my Humalog. I (and probably most people) likely don't have good insurance coverage for Afrezza." 2. awareness of Afrezza is growing
Based on Brian's post above, Brian recently started to try out Afrezza. And I check Tudiabetes.org often and in my view, there have been growing number of members expressed their interest in trying out Afrezza in the last two-three months (i.e., since Afrezza re-launch). There also has been a growing number of posts discussing Afrezza in the last two to three months. Whereas, after Sanofi dropped Afrezza and before the relaunch, there hardly wasn't any discussion of Afrezza on Tudiabetes. 3. Mannkind appears to be able grow awareness of Afrezza better than Sanofi did
In addition to what I observed on Tudiabetes, we also noticed that Mannkind have been active on JDRF and TCOYD walks recently. I do not have the impression of seeing Sanofi did anything like that while they were marketing Afrezza. These activities got to improve awareness of Afrezza to some degree. One small example of the effect is what Hillard said in his tweet:
Clearly Mike and his team are doing something that Sanofi has failed to do. 4. Afrezza's effectiveness is continued to be proved by the PWDs
I noticed that a lot of the opinion-leaders have tried out Afrezza and they stick to it. While Afrezza's sales is still minimal, such proof is still encouraging. The list of people include (in addition to the earliest adopters like Sam Finta, Eric Fenar, Mike P, Spiro, Laureen, Adam Lasher, Afrezzaguy, Gus, Matt B, and Laura (LJ), etc.): Aaron Kowalski (JDRF Chief Mission Officer and Scientist), Duck Fiabetes NorCal (diabetes blogger), Kevin Michelizzi (diabetes blogger), Mike Hoskins (Diabetes Mine), Amy Tenderich (Diabetes Mine), Daniele Hargenrader (Diabetes Dominator) and cynthia rogers-celt (active member in Tudiabetes.org). And now we have Brian (moderator in Tudiabetes.org) trying out Afrezza. I am especially encouraged by Brian's comment below: "This means that I pay 50%. The going rate for a kit of 30 4 unit cartridges and 60 8 unit cartridges is $300. I would probably need two kits a month based on my initial experience, so Afrezza would cost me about $300/month or about $3,600/year. I currently pay $160/year for my Humalog. I (and probably most people) likely don't have good insurance coverage for Afrezza." So Brian is trying out Afrezza, knowing that he would probably have to pay (out of pocket) $3,600/year a year (versus $160/year for Humalog). He clearly sees the great benefits and value of having Afrezza in his tool box in his fight against diabetes. |
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Post by compound26 on Oct 26, 2016 9:46:27 GMT -5
While cash and runway remains the top concern for Mannkind, I do feel that progress is being made in a few fronts. So here is the plus and minus of Mannkind's state of union right now: Minus: 1. low cash reserve; 2. slow ramp of TRs in relaunch of Afrezzaplus: 1. seems like insurance coverage is improving.
Below is what Brian in Tudiabetes.org observed. Brian is a moderator in Tudiabetes.org and I think his comments are generally well-thought, objective and to the point. www.tudiabetes.org/forum/t/whos-tried-tresiba/55665/209?u=charles5"One needs to be careful about "insurance coverage." Afrezza for the most part has moved from being considered investigation and experimental and being excluded from formularies. But it doesn't mean that it has good insurance coverage. It usually takes a year or two for a new "me too" drug to move from branded non-preferred status to preferred status. And this is a big change drug. My insurance (Aetna) still considers Afrezza branded non-preferred and may still do so for some time. This means that I pay 50%. The going rate for a kit of 30 4 unit cartridges and 60 8 unit cartridges is $300. I would probably need two kits a month based on my initial experience, so Afrezza would cost me about $300/month or about $3,600/year. I currently pay $160/year for my Humalog. I (and probably most people) likely don't have good insurance coverage for Afrezza." mnholdem since you have been closely following the insurance coverage trend for Afrezza, what is your read on Brian's comment above? 2. awareness of Afrezza is growing
Based on Brian's post above, Brian recently started to try out Afrezza. And I check Tudiabetes.org often and in my view, there have been growing number of members expressed their interest in trying out Afrezza in the last two-three months (i.e., since Afrezza re-launch). There also has been a growing number of posts discussing Afrezza in the last two to three months. Whereas, after Sanofi dropped Afrezza and before the relaunch, there hardly wasn't any discussion of Afrezza on Tudiabetes. 3. Mannkind appears to be able grow awareness of Afrezza better than Sanofi didIn addition to what I observed on Tudiabetes, we also noticed that Mannkind have been active on JDRF and TCOYD walks recently. I do not have the impression of seeing Sanofi did anything like that while they were marketing Afrezza. These activities got to improve awareness of Afrezza to some degree. One small example of the effect is what Hillard said in his tweet: Clearly Mike and his team are doing something that Sanofi has failed to do. 4. Afrezza's effectiveness is continued to be proved by the PWDsI noticed that a lot of the opinion-leaders have tried out Afrezza and they stick to it. While Afrezza's sales is still minimal, such proof is still encouraging. The list of people include (in addition to the earliest adopters like Sam Finta, Eric Fenar, Mike P, Spiro, Laureen, Adam Lasher, Afrezzaguy, Gus, Matt B, and Laura (LJ), etc.): Aaron Kowalski (JDRF Chief Mission Officer and Scientist), Duck Fiabetes NorCal (diabetes blogger), Kevin Michelizzi (diabetes blogger), Mike Hoskins (Diabetes Mine), Amy Tenderich (Diabetes Mine), Daniele Hargenrader (Diabetes Dominator) and cynthia rogers-celt (active member in Tudiabetes.org). And now we have Brian (moderator in Tudiabetes.org) trying out Afrezza. I am especially encouraged by Brian's comment below: "This means that I pay 50%. The going rate for a kit of 30 4 unit cartridges and 60 8 unit cartridges is $300. I would probably need two kits a month based on my initial experience, so Afrezza would cost me about $300/month or about $3,600/year. I currently pay $160/year for my Humalog. I (and probably most people) likely don't have good insurance coverage for Afrezza." So Brian is trying out Afrezza, knowing that he would probably have to pay (out of pocket) $3,600/year a year (versus $160/year for Humalog). He clearly sees the great benefits and value of having Afrezza in his tool box in his fight against diabetes. |
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