MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) has been an interesting stock to watch as of late. While the company has struggled throughout the past year, it seems as though they are finally starting to find their footing. Today, we'll talk about why MNKD has had such a rough time over the past year, what we're seeing that's causing bullish activity, and what we can expect to see from MNKD moving forward.
Why MannKind Has Struggled Over The Past Year
As mentioned above, MNKD has had an incredibly rough year or so. However, much of the company's struggles have had little to nothing to do with their own actions. You see, the declines surround a groundbreaking treatment known as Afrezza. A few years ago, MNKD started to work to come up with an insulin that could be inhaled using their proprietary technology known as technosphere. Soon, the company was able to do so. In 2014 Afrezza was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. At this point, investors cheered.
While MNKD was the developer of the treatment, as many biotech companies do, they licensed the commercialization of Afrezza to a different company. In this case, that licensing went to Sanofi (PA:SASY). This was where MannKind went wrong. You see, Sanofi had a competing treatment, and commercializing Afrezza to its full capability would hurt Sanofi in the long run. So, the company decided to drag its feet with regard to commercialization; leading to incredibly poor sales volume and overwhelming amounts of short interest on the stock. From there, MNKD fell dramatically.
Why Things Are Starting To Move In The Right Direction For MNKD
While Sanofi did what it could to drag its feet on Afrezza for about a year, the relationship between MNKD and Sanofi is coming to an end. As such, MannKind is free to commercialize Afrezza on its own, or contract the commercialization to another company. This happened in January, when the two companies announced that they were canceling the commercialization agreement.
Since the announcement that the commercialization agreement was coming to an end was made, MannKind has made some interesting movements to get Afrezza out there. One of the most significant is its partnership with independent Diabetes Care Centers. Essentially, MNKD has given these care centers the right to use the name Afrezza. In return, they will be treating diabetes in real time with Afrezza, which will help to lift sales. The best part of it all is that MannKind doesn't have to spend any money to make this happen.
What We're Seeing From MNKD Today
Today is proving to be an incredibly strong day for MannKind as the stock works to recover. Currently (10:56), MNKD is trading at $1.79 per share after a gain of $0.16 per share or 9.82% thus far today.
What We Can Expect To See Moving Forward
Moving forward, I have an overwhelmingly bullish opinion of what we can expect to see from MNKD. While the company has had its fair share of volatility as of late, it seems as though things are finally starting to move in the right direction. Now that the relationship between MannKind and Sanofi is in the rear-view mirror, the company has the ability to commercialize Afrezza in the way that it should have been done in the first place. As a result, I'm expecting to see incredibly positive movement with regard to Afrezza sales moving forward. On top of Afrezza, MNKD has announced that it is working on the development of other treatments using its proprietary technology known as technosphere. This makes for an enticing long term opportunity. All in all, I believe that things are looking great for MNKD.