Hotter than …
There is certain irony every time we listen to or read the Abbott earnings transcript. We remember back to the days when they were buying up BGM companies and running them into the ground. We also remember their first attempt at CGM which didn’t go very well which had nothing to do with the product and everything to do with management ineptitude. Today it’s a vastly different story as Libre is...
Brad the Broken
While not all Game of Thrones fans were happy with the final episode we just loved the scene when they choose the new ruler of the seven kingdoms. Brad the Broken wasn’t chosen for any other reason than he came with a good story, a story that could be sold to the people he would be ruling. This really isn’t much different than what’s going on right now with Livongo....
A Preview of coming attractions
Yes, its earnings time once again, that time when everyone will go nuts over lots of numbers that in the grand scheme of things really don’t mean all that much. This is particularly true in the growing CGM market and will play out in full force when Abbott reports this Wednesday and Dexcom later in the month. No matter how many times we say it, no matter how obvious it’s...
Theranos diabetes
“In July, the company began clinical trials of the smartloop system and plans to submit for FDA premarket approval in 2017.” – mobihealthnews October 19, 2016 “Bigfoot anticipates initiating a pivotal trial incorporating FreeStyle Libre technology in 2018 at clinical research sites across the United States.” Bigfoot press release July 13, 2017 Being a grandfather now I’ve had to brush up on my bedtime stories and one of my favorites is Aesop's...
Kicking sand in Tyler’s face
There are certain facts about our wacky world and one big is not everyone plays well together in the sandbox even when it’s in everyone’s best interest to play well together. The reason this happens as you can probably guess is greed, no wants to share wanting the sandbox all to themselves. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the quest to build a Tyler. Just as a refresher Tyler...
Consistency – Pattern – Results?
Now we just might be crazy, but we do believe in those pesky little things called facts. And the facts pretty much say two things when it comes to our chardonnay guzzling friends and diabetes devices – that Sanofi has no business being in the device arena and they are THE worst company to partner with. Again not to belabor a point but here are just some of what we...
Back to the wackiness
Before we got caught up from all the wackiness that happened around the 4th of July holiday how about a huge shout out to the U S Women’s Soccer team for not just winning the World Cup but doing so with class, dignity, a little good old fashioned swagger and making a pitch for equal pay for equal work. These ladies not only represented our country well on the field...
Is this a sustainable business?
Rarely has an IPO sparked so much interest and speculation as the upcoming IPO for Livongo. Yet with all this speculation there seems to be a general agreement that the Livongo business model is not sustainable over the long haul. This is not just because there is an intense amount of competition in the digital diabetes space which will create pricing pressure. Rather over just what is Livongo selling. Before we...
The most patients win
It really doesn’t matter whether a company sells drugs, devices or diabetes management services in the end the company with the most patients win. As we have seen many times it also doesn’t matter if a company has the best drug, device or platform as long as they have lots of patients. Diabetes has become a business where scale matters. Simply put scale drives efficiencies and without it making money...
Déjà vu All Over Again
Last week One Drop received lots of press coverage and social media noise as the system is now being sold in select Apple stores. The following bullet points from a CNBC post is an example of the coverage: • Select Apple Stores now sell One Drop, a blood glucose monitor that closely integrates with the iPhone and the Apple Watch. • It's the only diabetes product that Apple is selling in its physical stores,...