What: Investors in MannKind Corporation (MNKD +3.27%) are having another good day. Shares are up more than 10% as of 2:00 p.m. ET as investors cheered the company's presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.
So what: The stock is continuing its rebound from a huge sell-off earlier in the month as news broke that marketing partner Sanofi (SNY +0.71%) was terminating its contract to commercialize Afrezza, MannKind's inhaled insulin.
The company is still finalizing plans for how to proceed from here, but it did give investors a list of near-term priorities during the presentation, which included:
- Find a new partner to help commercialize Afrezza now that Sanofi is out of the picture
- Develop patient and provider advocacy channels, including its new "Afrezza Advocacy Council," to help build awareness for Afrezza at a low cost
- Continuing exploring new applications for its Technosphere technology and sign a new partner as quickly as possible
- Developing plans to launch Afrezza by itself in case no one is willing to step in to fill Sanofi's vacancy
- Sell its California facility, which it believes will bring in roughly $23 million
This rough plan was enough to get shares moving in the right direction.
Now what: It's unknown if a new partner will step up to the plate to either to help MannKind commercialize Afrezza or explore new product candidates to utilize its inhaled drug-delivery technology. However, the company did provide investors with a look at all the product candidates that it is considering:
Data source: MannKind's JP Morgan presentation.
Its management team seems particularly excited about epinephrine as a product candidate as it believes the development timeline would be "incredibly short."
As for its financial position, MannKind's management stated that at current spending levels, it has enough cash on hand to fund itself into the second half of 2016 and it is implementing "aggressive financial controls" to extend that runway out even further. It also hinted that it might be able to negotiate a fee from Sanofi as it brings the sales and marketing of Afrezza back in-house. Add in a potential cash infusion from the sale of its California facility and the company believes that it has enough time to right the ship.
