JP Morgan Wednesday
It’s seems appropriate that on a day when the JDRF announces plans for an artificial pancreas project, that today was device at JP Morgan. Actually today Diabetic Investor subscribers get a twofer as we also attended the OneMedForum2010 which just happens to be right down the street from JP Morgan and is running at the same time. According to the program for this conference; “The OneMedForum is designed to bring together the emerging companies, investors and strategic partners involved in healthcare and life sciences. Our goal is to provide a place where innovation meets capital.” Put another these are early stage companies looking for money.
Among the list of companies presenting at OneMed were several Insulet (NASDAQ:PODD), who presented at the big show today and Dexcom (NASDAQ:DXCM) wannabes. Given the nature of these smaller more early stage companies both Insulet and Dexcom can rest easy and not worry too much about possible competition.
One company that did capture Diabetic Investor’s was Telecare, a privately held company based in our nation’s capital. Telecare is one of several companies trying to combine glucose monitoring and cellular technology. Without going into great detail the Telecare story is pretty simple, the patient tests their glucose then pushes a button which then transmits the data to a server which in turn sends back a message to the patient with a message. Like all start-ups in diabetes they show the epidemic growth rate of diabetes, talk up their lower cost of goods and claim this innovative system will somehow improve outcomes.
Telecare like so many others at the OneMed conference suffers from the age old problem of if we build it patients will come delusion. Never mind the company couldn’t explain exactly why patients who rarely tests their glucose levels today would all of sudden test more just because their monitor had the ability to send readings using cellular technology to another party. Or how their small company could gain formulary access, sell and support their product.
The reality is with most of these companies is that they all basically have the same goals; raise some money and eventually get bought by a bigger player. The only problem is these companies suffer from the same delusion the big boys have; fancy technology does not translate into anything more than fancy technology. One just might think that one day investors would wake up to this fact. Diabetic Investor must admit after watching some of these presentations that old PT is smiling as he was right when he said there’s a sucker born every minute.
Turning our attention to Insulet who presented today the story remains pretty much unchanged. The company is experiencing some good fortune as their many possible competitors continue to shot themselves in the foot. This good fortune gives them time to solve their COGS issue, gain share and eventually get acquired.
Diabetic Investor also attend the Orexigen (NASDAQ:OREX) session and came away believing that the three horse race between them, Vivus (NASDAQ:VVUS) and Arena (NASDAQ:ARNA) to get an obesity drug on the market is now a two horse race between Orexigen and Vivus. Seeing that Vivus has already submitted their compound to the FDA and Orexigen has not give Vivus the lead for the moment. Given the nature of this space there’s more than enough market share to go around and both Orexigen and Vivus will get their share.
All and all things were pretty tame today although we must admit we did get a kick out listening to these wannabes. Who one day hope to be presenting just down the street with the big boys. While we’re sure some will achieve this goal, the truth is Diabetic Investor didn’t see anything today that would warrant a seat at the grown-ups table.
