BioCentury
ARTICLE | Financial News

MannKind slips on analyst comments

August 15, 2013 11:57 PM UTC

Shares of MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ:MNKD) closed off $0.95 (13%) to $6.64 on Thursday after an analyst questioned the commercial prospects of the company's Afrezza. MannKind gave back all of its gains from Wednesday when it rose $0.73 (11%) to $7.59 on news that the inhaled dry powder formulation of insulin met the primary endpoint in a pair of Phase III trials for Type I and Type II diabetes (see BioCentury Extra, Aug. 14).

Cowen's Simos Simeonidis said in a note that Afrezza "looks approvable" but highlighted data he thinks could provide grist for competitors. In Type I diabetics, Simeonidis noted that Afrezza did worse than NovoLog insulin aspart from Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NVO; NYSE:NVO) on the proportion of patients with HbA1c target levels of less than 7% or 6.5%. He also said Afrezza did not significantly improve the incidence of severe hypoglycemia vs. NovoLog. In Type II diabetics, Simeonidis said Afrezza led to an average 3.5-pound weight gain from baseline compared with placebo and did not significantly improve mean fasting blood glucose levels vs. placebo in that trial. ...