What will 2019 bring?
As 2018 comes to an end let’s look ahead and get a sneak peek at 2019. As per usual the start of our New Year will begin in that beautiful city by the bay for the annual J P Morgan Healthcare Conference. Anyone who has attended JPM knows this conference is a must attend for anyone and everyone in healthcare. This year JPM will be ending and CES will be...
Stop the torture
Momma Kliff used to say that some people are just hard leaners. That no matter how hard you try and tell them the facts they continue to ignore the facts. They continue to proceed down a path to nowhere. Or as many have noted there is no cure for stupid. We mention this today as, yet another company has come out with a way cool whiz-bang conventional blood glucose monitor. This...
Which is it?
We’re beginning to wonder what the end game is for this debate over the “high” cost of insulin. Are the advocates for lower out of pocket costs doing this so that insulin using patients save money or achieve better outcomes. Listen we have no problem if this is all about money nor do have a problem if it’s about better outcomes. However, it can’t be both. Either this is about...
Open mouth insert foot
It seems like our friends at Medtronic were caught a little off guard by our post making public that Fran Kaufman had resigned as their Chief Medical Officer. A post she held since May 2009. Yesterday Hooman Hakami EVP and President of Medtronic’s Diabetes Group had this to say on HIS Facebook page; “Last week, Dr. Fran Kaufman, our chief medical officer, announced that she is retiring from Medtronic at the...
Who’s next in line?
One has to wonder who Medtronic will bring in to replace Fran now that she has resigned. Or perhaps we should rephrase that and state who will be willing to accept the position given all the issues the company is facing. Diabetes may be a big business, but it is also a small community and let’s face some facts all the people who are qualified for this position know each...
Chaos in Northridge
This past Thursday Fran Kaufman Chief Medical Officer at Medtronic Diabetes submitted her resignation. Ms. Kaufman has told some colleagues that she will at long last retire which we find very interesting as when we talked with Fran at ADA, she indicated she had no plans to retire. While we suppose it is possible that someone as respected as Fran would resign so she could retire we don’t think so....
Classic Thinking
Just when it looked like the FDA was living in the 21st century the agency issues new guidance for …wait for it …. Blood Glucose Monitors. Now we know that BGM is dying a slow and profitable death, but it is dying and there is no hope for long term survival. So naturally it makes perfect sense that the agency spends valuable time and resources to come up with new...
From neutral to overdrive?
Never let it be said that diabetes isn’t one wacky world. For weeks now, we’ve been noting that Novo Nordisk is being Novo Nordisk taking their sweet time getting the oral version of semaglutide to the FDA. Never known for being swift or aggressive the company may be in the verge of an about face. Per a report on the FirecePharma website; “The Danish drugmaker is considering using a priority review...
Billions of reasons
Although we haven’t gotten there just yet it’s no longer a question of if Type 2’s start using CGM but when they do and how they use it. CGM is not like an insulin pump when it comes to having a finite market size. CGM is valuable tool regardless of whether the patient uses insulin. What’s misunderstood about CGM usage in the less intensive patient population is how they will use...
Words Matter
When it comes to our wacky world particularly in the toy box lots of funny things can happen. The toy makers use lots of interesting methods to determine things like exactly who’s counted as a user. Installed user base is a key metric in the insulin pump market as it determines several important future numbers. Just by way of example during the last earnings call Medtronic noted that have “over 135,000...