Interesting news on two companies that can be bought on FT
Source - ROBO Brief from ROBO GLOBAL
Diabetes Tech Shows Promise
With the annual American Diabetes Association meeting in a few weeks, we wanted to point out some new diabetes technology on the Horizon. Pun intended, HTEC member Insulet plans to present a glimpse of Horizon, its new closed-loop device currently under development. Closed-loop means that Insuletâs insulin pump will be integrated with the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device of another HTEC member, Dexcom, to help streamline insulin dosing for the times when itâs needed most.
On the private company side, Companion Medical is another company to watch. It offers the only FDA-approved smart insulin pen, and is in its earliest days of adoption with a multibillion dollar addressable market. With this and other new technology on the rise, we are still in the early innings of innovation of diabetes management, and expect more disruption for years to come.
Iterestingly, I spent a couple of years building a diabetes management app for a biotech startup, the insulin market is an absolute racket. The cost of ânot dyingâ is absolutely insane!
In the last few years a lot more has been discovered about diaetes in general (there are now 4 or 5 types) and moves have been made to manage blood sugar though other means (for some it is literally as simple as diet and exercise). Of course some people will always need insulin, but I do believe itâs time as the âonly viable solutionâ is limited. Considering itâs cost, I think a lot of medical providers will jump at the chance for an alternative. (we signed up about 20 NHS trusts in the first few months for example)
Yes I bought DEXCOM after a read up about the huge amounts of money they get paid per patient, and the amount of patients isnât likely to come down any time soon. I only own iRobot via a couple of funds but still its good news.
I think youâre right about the amount of patients, if anything, much like autism, the recent advances in understanding the disease, I would expect the numbers to rise, probably a lot. (and deaths caused by un-diagnosed cases to fall, with a bit of luck)