MannKind Gains Another 20 Percent on New FDA Label

Following a 7 percent increase Monday, shares of MannKind Corp. stayed bullish, closing up more than 20 percent increase on Tuesday. The gain follows Monday’s conference call where the company announced updated prescribing information, approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, for Afrezza, the company’s sole commercial product. The Westlake Village biotech company’s inhalable insulin now has more detailed information for patients, including dosage strength over time and guidelines around mealtime doses. During the conference call, Chief Executive Michael Castagna said the change in label will help the company target Type 2 diabetes market more aggressively. Over 90 percent of diabetes patients are Type 2, said Castagna. According to Chief Financial Officer Steve Binder, the company also exchanged 1.3 million of its shares of common stock for 100 percent of the outstanding series A and Series B stock purchase warrants. The exchange will free up 8.4 million of common stock, making 22 million MannKind shares available for future capital raising, Binder said. During the call, Castagna also noted that Afrezza’s prescriptions have reached 400 a week. This is Afrezza’s best performance since the company ended its marketing partnership with Sanofi S.A. last year. Shares of MannKind (MNKD) on Tuesday closed up 48 cents, or nearly 21 percent, at $2.82 on the Nasdaq.