Off with their heads
Well it looks as if all the crusaders who claim that the “high” out of pocket cost of insulin is hurting patients will get their day in court. The Minnesota Attorney General is suing the three major insulin companies – Lilly – Novo Nordisk and Sanofi. Per several published reports; “The lawsuit claims drugmakers fraudulently set "artificially high" list prices for their drugs and negotiated steep rebates with pharmacy benefit managers....
Just how the heck…..
We are anxiously awaiting our call on Friday with Medtronic as the more we look, the deeper we dig the less we like what we find. Yet we want to be fair we want Medtronic to be given a fair opportunity to explain themselves. As long-time readers know I have been all over the company at times and then accused of being in their pocket. This as we say...
Strange Times Indeed
There is no question we live in very strange times. Yesterday JNJ reported earnings and this was not a diabetes event. This morning Abbott reported results, and this was a major diabetes event. Even stranger and we’d recommend sitting down for this are we are about to say some very nice things about Abbott. As we have noted before Libre has exceeded everyone’s expectations and continues to do so. However,...
Perception vs Reality
First some possible good news as Medtronic has agreed to an interview Friday morning, so stay tuned. As we promised we will publish what’s discussed. Along these same lines we have been doing some additional research into the insulin pump world looking specifically at how patients view their systems. Surfing through various social media sites its pretty obvious that none of the insulin pump companies are listening to patients very...
Be Careful What You Ask For
Yes it seems the folks in Northridge aren’t all that happy these days. Suggestions have been made that we have been overly harsh on the company. Some have suggested that we should examine the MAUDE database to see what’s going on with Tandem, Dexcom and the FreeStyle Libre. Fair enough so we did just that and here’s what we found; Tandem Pretty much normal insulin pump adverse events. What we didn’t find...
Oh Canada
Yesterday Canada cleared the 670G per a press release; “Medtronic of Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), today announced it has received a licence from Health Canada for the MiniMed™ 670G system — the first insulin pump system in Canada that helps to stabilize glucose levels 24 hours a day by automatically adjusting basal insulin delivery based on real-time insulin needs.1 This new system allows people with type...
What’s going on in Northridge?
As everyone knows sensor augmented insulin pumps are the hottest toy in the toy chest. Yet as we keep saying the least important link in this chain is the actual insulin pump. For all practical purposes the pump just does what it’s told to do. The CGM sensor and the insulin dosing algorithm are the real engines that drive this fancy new car. So, what happens when the CGM sensor...
What happens when …..
There will come a time when interconnected diabetes management (IDM) goes mainstream. With all the companies working in this area it’s inventible. Eventually some of these projects will yield a system that not just works but starts to be embraced by patients, physicians and payors. What then? Will we see a dramatic improvement in patient outcomes or more of the same? To be honest we have no idea what will...
What’s about to be discovered
Today America celebrates Christopher Columbus and his discovery of our great country, which is actually ironic as he never set foot in America. This small but well-known fact just goes to show something that Momma Kliff used to say, “You will arrive somewhere when you travel whether it’s where you actually wanted to be depended on how well you plan your trip.” We thought of Mom today when we read that...
The price being paid
With the insulin business becoming commoditized both Lilly and Novo Nordisk are looking for new categories with less pricing pressure. One of the more promising categories has been GLP-1 and one of the more promising drugs in Novo’s pipeline is an oral version of semaglutide. However in typical Novo fashion they are studying this promising drug to death and have yet to bring it before the FDA. Our concern with...