MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) Is A Real Turnaround Opportunity

MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) took a real hit at the end of January based on the discussion topics of a recent conference call, and headed into February seemingly set for further weakness as sentiment remained subdued. We've covered this one on a few occasions over the last twelve months here at Insider Financial, however, and on each of these occasions we have noted that the then-weakness seen in the company's stock is far from representative of its long term potential. Subsequent to said coverage, the company has always gained strength, as markets realign to more accurately reflect MannKind's fundamental positioning.We think the same is about to happen here.So what's driving the negative sentiment? The company has traded below the $1 mark for a fair amount of time now, and it's looking at a near term delisting if it can't raise its bid above said level. With no major near term catalysts set to hit press between now and delisting time (towards the end of March) the chances of it being able to stage a raised bid are small, and so the company is going to have to resort to (and to quote) alternative methods of maintaining compliance. Alternative methods, of course, translates to a reverse split.Reverse splits have a bad reputation at this end of the market, but as we've said many times before, sometimes they are just unavoidable. For a company like MannKind to lose its NASDAQ listing would be far more of a serious situation than would be it splitting to raise bid, and while shareholders are likely to be aggrieved, and justifiably so, the chances of them picking up any sort of return on their holdings is very much diminished if the company has to drop down to OTC.So a reverse split seems inevitable, that's the bad news.The good news is that the company has a great asset at its disposal, and that we expect sales of said asset to ramp up over the coming quarters and beyond. For those not familiar with this one, MannKind developed and carried an asset through to commercialization called Afrezza. It's an inhalable insulin asset, targeting diabetes. It's hard to understate how much potential an alternative administration version of insulin has from a revenues perspective, but as yet, this one has failed to achieve said potential.Why?Well, it first hit the market as part of a collaboration with Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), but the initial marketing run was flawed for a couple of reasons (readers can find out more about these reasons in this article) and the drug failed to perform against its targets.Now, however, it looks as though MannKind has addressed these issues, and that the drug (as a result) has a clean run at achieving its potential. Further, for the majority of last year, markets expected the company to fold outright. There was basically no cash on the books, and it was essentially a race against time to get revenues in-flowing before operational capital ran out. A settlement with the just mentioned Sanofi saw $120 million injected onto the balance sheet, however, and this righted the ship somewhat.Now, it's juts a case of waiting to see if the company can start bringing in the numbers that we think the drug can achieve, if it hits is commercial potential. For some, this wait and see strategy is a tough one. There's no guarantee, and this company has been a tough one for many to hold over the last twenty-four months.For those with a bit of risk tolerance, however, there's some real reward on offer here, if and when the company can force a turnaround.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on MNKD, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in MNKD and have not been compensated for this article.