Ok. I will bite.

What kind of share price impact would a partnership have pre-approval that did not include upfront money but instead paid for all Afrezza expenses between now and approval? This would be in exchange for a lesser % of the revenue from a product launch. If this were the middle ground with a partner, I would assume milestone payments for approval and assumption of all phase 4 trial expenses. There would also be a budget to order the needed filling equipment in a timely fashion.

My guess is big pharma thinks Al is asking too much and this might be a way to insure limited exposure. It might also lend itself to MannKind keeping more of the proceeds long term. No huge upfront expenses to swallow and it would allow the partner to get started on a sales and marketing plan. We are getting to the point where somebody needs to be working on a launch that will meet early demand.

Concurrent with ramping up production there is the need to start the Euro approval process which has always been discussed as being the responsibility of the partner.

In this kind of arrangement the only dilution I see would be partner shares and the cash raise to pay off the bonds which come due in 2013. If the cash raise was done after a partnership announcement, the number of shares needed to meet the cash requirements would be far fewer. Once funding is behind us, the run-up to approval could start in earnest.

All speculation of course.