Medtronic allied with tech titan Qualcomm Life on the development of next-generation continuous glucose monitors, yet another sign that diabetes is one of med tech’s most fertile therapeutic areas for innovation.
The companies said they aim to create an affordable, easy-to-use CGM for general practitioners in a bid to extend the technology to the majority of the 400 million type 2 diabetics around the world. They aim to build on Medtronic’s established MiniMed CGM franchise and Qualcomm’s skills at designing components for connected medical devices, according to a company statement.
Planned features of the next-gen device include a new sensor, smaller design, and ability to provide recent and retrospective glucose data.
The device bigwig also has diabetes-centric partnership with IBM Watson Health, and has invested in start-ups Dreamed Diabetes and Glooko.
“We believe that glucose should be a vital sign of diabetes health. Professional CGM is an increasingly used diagnostic tool that empowers physicians and patients with meaningful glucose data to tackle glucose control. Our solutions go beyond delivering data and provide automated observations and clinical decision support to help create a personalized care plan,” said Laura Stoltenberg, general manager of Medtronic’s non-intensive diabetes therapies unit, in a statement.
A low-cost, connected continuous glucose monitor that can provide clinical decision support seems like it would be a nice addition to the toolset of Diabeter, a Danish operator of Diabetes clinics, which Medtronic acquired last year. The Danish company boasts the Diabeter Dashboard for the dissemination of patient data and improvement of self-management of the disease.
In another services play in the diabetes (and heart failure) arena, Medtronic in 2013 purchased remote patient monitoring and telemedicine provider Cardiocom for $200 million. Cardiocom, too, could benefit from the planned device, but only if it snakes its way through the FDA approval or clearance process, of course.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Medtronic’s position in the diabetes arena was recently strengthened when private payer UnitedHealth announced it would make Medtronic its exclusive in-network provider, sending the stock of competitor Tandem Diabetes Care down 20%.
Meanwhile, Dexcom is working on a smaller, cheaper, next-gen CGM of its own with Alphabet’s life science subsidiary Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences). The duo aim to launch their first product in 2018.
Dexcom this month announced that it is acquiring its exclusive distributor on the continent. In another diabetes device distribution deal, Roche recently agreed to sell Senseonic’s CE-marked continuous glucose monitor in some European countries.
And devices are poised to play broader role in diabetes than simple patient monitoring. Intarcia just raised $75 million in debt to prepare for the launch of its promising subdermal implant and micropump for the delivery of a type of diabetes medicine known as a GLP-1 agonist.
