MannKind Is 'Making Progress' On Its Alternative To Mylan's EpiPen, Report Says

According to Connecticut-based News Times, MannKind's local manufacturing facility employs around 150 people in the city and plays a key role in developing an alternative way to distribute the drug epinephrine throughout the body. Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email feedback@benzinga.com with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!

The publication noted that MannKind's inhaler, which it uses to administer the insulin therapy Afrezza, could be used to administer other medications, including the key drug found in EpiPens.

Related Link: Mylan Announces $300 Version Of EpiPen

"We view that as our lead program at this point," News Times quoted MannKind's CEO and CFO Matthew Pfeffer as saying. "Not because of what's going on in the news today, but because it just makes sense. It's been in development for some time."

Pfeffer also acknowledged that the company expects to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year and hopes to file for an Investigational New Drug designation in early 2017. Should the product be approved, he has "every reason to believe" it will be "much cheaper" than the EpiPen.

The executive also said that a clinical testing phase would be shorter than usual given the nature of what the company is trying to get approved.