Pharmaceutical company MannKind has regained the worldwide rights to market Afrezza, its inhalable insulin powder, from French pharma company Sanofi. The latter will continue to distribute Afrezza from its existing inventory until MannKind begins to distribute Afrezza during the third quarter.
Though MannKind is headquartered in Valencia, Calif., its Afrezza manufacturing facility is in Danbury.
“[The] return of control of Afrezza is a landmark day for MannKind,” said MannKind CEO Matthew Pfeffer. “We are thrilled to begin the process of making Afrezza the successful mealtime treatment for people with diabetes that we always believed it would be. In the coming weeks, we will roll out more information about our commercial team for Afrezza, the resources that we are designing for patients and physicians, and our plans for the future.”
The drug went on sale in early 2015, though Sanofi has had some difficulty in marketing it effectively. Pfeffer said he plans to make four presentations at the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) annual scientific meeting in June ”” consisting of two completed post-marketing studies and, if accepted, two additional abstracts that are pending ADA approval ”” to boost interest in Afrezza.
