Pfizer recently created a complete flop out of a wonderful idea—inhaled insulin.
Exubera, the bong filled with insulin that patients could inhale only sold $12 million in the first nine months of the year and Pfizer recently said it would take a $2.8 billion charge and abandon the product.

Pfizer was in such a rush to kill Exubera, that they even failed to inform Nektar, the company from whom they had licensed the product. Nektar was reportedly not happy to read the news in a press release.
Pfizer’s failure resulted in lots of funny pictures of the Exubera bong on pharma blogs, such as the bird feeder, but now Mr. Ed Mann, the 82-year-old chief executive and controlling shareholder of the MannKind Corporation, has decided to go where Pfizer stumbled. And he is investing $1 billion of his own money to succeed.
New York Times has this amazing story.
So will he succeed?
On August 16, 2006 I wrote about Pfizer's insulin inhaler and said that “look at the Exubra inhaler! It is BIG. A foot long, when unfolded, which makes it feel like a baseball bat. Think your girlfriend would like to haul that out of her handbag while seated in a restaurant?Common sense, folks. Common sense. NO ONE would be caught dead with this foot long pocket rocket in their pocket. Or handbag.”
Unfortunately I was right, and Pfizer failed.

But Mr. Mann has the advantage of having a much smaller device, which no one should be embarassed to use.
He also claims there will be no adverse effect on lung function, but has yet to prove that assertion. If true, I think his new insulin may have a chance in the market place.
It may not become a billion dollar product, and he may not recoup his investment anytime soon, but he may get sales of $500 million per year.
If the FDA requires lung testing, however, all bets are off. After all, would YOU risk your ability to breath in order to avoid a small needle?