Prolonging the pain
Senseonics may have been the first causality of the coronavirus crisis but it certainly won’t be the last. The fact is several smaller less well capitalized companies are on the verge of collapse and with venture money drying up it’s only a matter of time before more of these companies join Senseonics. The one saving grace for these companies is the $2 Trillion stimulus package passed by Congress. In the...
A Call To Action
There are several disturbing facts about COVID and patients with diabetes being at increased risk for developing the virus. One very disturbing fact is the virus impact on the African American population a population which is already disproportionately impacted by diabetes. According to the journal Clinical Diabetes; “4.9 million African-American adults, or 18.7% of all African Americans ≥ 20 years of age, have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes, compared to 7.1% of non-Hispanic...
The other side
As we continue to gauge the economic impact of the coronavirus it is worthwhile to look beyond the crisis and speculate as to what life will look like when this crisis ends. Based on conversations with members of the diabetes industry we have reached the following conclusions; 1. On the device side businesses with large installed user bases will weather the storm just fine. Insulin pump patients continue to order pump...
Even when virtual it’s all about …..
This past Friday without much fanfare the ADA made it official converting the upcoming conference which was supposed to be in Chicago to a virtual conference. Per the ADA’s web site; “Due to the global COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the American Diabetes Association has made the decision to transition the June 12-16, 2020 Scientific Sessions from a live, in-person meeting to a virtual meeting over the same dates. Although we would prefer...
Things we ponder
With the world under virtual lockdown it has become somewhat of a parole game keeping yourself amused. Let’s be honest here it’s not easy watching the news, it is possible to OD on Netflix and no matter how good it was you can only watch so many reruns of Law and Order. Frankly we are thankful we have the wacky world to keep us amused and what an amusing world...
An Idea
This morning we came across an article in US News and World Report entitled “Patch Pump Device Could Offer Cheaper Insulin Delivery”. The article states; “The study found that combining a wearable, patch-like insulin delivery device (called the V-Go) and an older, cheaper insulin could safely help people with type 2 diabetes achieve good blood sugar control.” Now we really hate to inform the good folk at US News but Valeritas the...
No Shame
Well it looks like Livongo isn’t the only diabetes company using the current crisis to inflate the value of their shares, check this out; “Nemaura Medical (NSDQ:NMRD) announced today that it is planning to immediately repurpose its SugarBeat continuous glucose monitor (CGM) as a continuous temperature monitor (CTM) to help diagnose fevers in potential cases of COVID-19.” You can read the entire story at https://www.drugdeliverybusiness.com/nemaura-medical-repurposes-its-cgm-to-spot-coronavirus-fevers/ Before we go on we must admit we...
Breaking News
Let’s be honest there are days we’d rather be lucky than good. This morning while checking our email we came across an email that wasn’t meant for us but certainly caught our attention. It seems that our friends at Medtronic are getting very close to selling their diabetes franchise to a group of private equity firms. According to the documents we obtained this project is code named Icarus and outlines...
Let’s settle this the old-fashioned way
It has come to our attention that Livongo founder Glen Tullman isn’t the least bit pleased with what we’ve been saying. Naturally we are concerned about this displeasure although we aren’t exactly shocked. Glen is not the first diabetes executive to express his displeasure with Diabetic Investor far from it. Glen is just joining a long and select list. Like so many before him Glen is having trouble dealing with...
Why bother with the facts?
The way things are going at Livongo we’re shocked they haven’t announced they have developed a new program to battle the coronavirus. It was bad enough that yesterday company founder Glen Tullman appeared on CNBC shamelessly implying that somehow the Livongo platform is helping patients with diabetes battle the virus, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Nope the company is doubling down today with a statement...