Why, Why, Why …….
Over the past few days Diabetic Investor
has received several questions from subscribers on a variety of subjects. Given
the nature of these questions we thought it would better to answer the all questions
collectively rather than individually. So here we go.
1. LifeScan
didn’t have a booth at EASD, why not?
Although Diabetic Investor did not attend
EASD this year we have spoken with several people who did attend and according
to these attendees the buzz making the rounds was why LifeScan did not have a
booth. While LifeScan does not consult with Diabetic Investor on such matters
we can only speculate as to why they did not feel it necessary to have a booth.
Given the dismal nature of the blood
glucose monitoring market and the fact that LifeScan has firmly established themselves
as the leader in BGM they most likely believed that the expense of EASD wasn’t
worth it. They realize that barring a major screw up not much will change in
BGM.
Further evidence of just how comfortable
LifeScan feels can be found in how they are marketing their monitors. While the
competition continues to offer free monitors, LifeScan has abandoned this
practice.
What they see is the same thing Diabetic
Investor sees, namely Roche continues to lose share and neither Bayer or Abbott
(NYSE:ABT) by themselves are large enough to threaten their market leadership.
With margins under pressure and market growth nonexistent why spend all the
time and money to have a booth at show.
2. Yesterday’s
New York Times contained a lengthy article on MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD), why wasn’t
Diabetic Investor quoted in the article?
The simple answer we weren’t interviewed for
the article. However after reading the article Diabetic Investor did find it
ironic that Dr. Gerald Bernstein, a New York-based endocrinologist who is a
former president of the American Diabetes Association, was quoted. Dr. Bernstein
is current the VP of Generex Biotechnology (NASDAQ: GNBT). If that name sounds familiar
it should as if there is one thing Generex is very good at its sending out
press releases.
Generex has developed a product called
Oral-lyn™ which is an oral insulin delivered through the mouth not the lungs.
Back in the day when Diabetic Investor first came across Generex and this
unique delivery method we thought the company just might be onto something. But
just as inhaled insulin has turned out to be a disaster, Oral-lyn has never
lived up to the hype. And hype is something Generex does at every opportunity.
Everyone knows that Diabetic Investor isn’t
a big fan of MannKind as we believe the time for inhaled insulin has come and
gone. However, MannKind at least has a real product that has made it through
the vigor’s of clinical trials.
What these two companies do have in
common is that there are investors stupid enough to buy their shares and
believe the myth that any non-injectable form of insulin will be a
mega-blockbuster. At least with MannKind Diabetic Investor can excuse the
stupidity as the company has a real product that does have some, albeit, small
market potential. When it comes to Generex there is absolutely no excuse as any
investor who bothers to do even the smallest amount of due diligence will find
that this company is nothing more than a glorified Ponzi scheme that would make
Bernard Madoff proud.
