Valencia-based biomed MannKind Corp. has issued its third round of pink slips this year amid lackluster sales of its new inhalable insulin drug, Afrezza.

The firm cut back on staffing both in Valencia and in Danbury, Conn., where its manufacturing plant is located, according to the News-Times of Danbury.

MannKind CFO Matt Pfeffer referred to the cutbacks as a “right-sizing (of) the company to reflect anticipated demand and operational needs,” the News-Times reported.

MannKind had announced plans to ramp up its production capacity in July after inking an agreement with the distributor Sanofi, but hoped-for sales haven’t materialized.

Once trading near the $10 level, MannKind stock hit a 52-week low this week, briefly dipping below $3 before regaining some ground on the news of the staffing cutbacks.

Pfeffer told the News-Times that the company “is very different today than it was a year ago or two years ago, and we have very different needs. The projected sales curve for our lead product (Afrezza) is also different than we anticipated.

“All these things, taken together, cause us to continually reevaluate our needs and our organizational structure to make it optimal from an efficiency and cost standpoint. (The layoffs are) just good business practice,” he said.

Pfeffer told the News-Times that the staffing reductions “affected all of our sites, both here on the East Coast as well as California and affected all levels of management in the company.”

He told the News-Times that MannKind had closed a facility in New Jersey and moved certain functions from Valencia to Danbury.

Some of the Valencia employees who were being laid off were being replaced with new-hires in Danbury, he said.