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 comes with the territory and quite frankly after 20 years in this business we have developed a thick skin. Our job isn’t to make these people happy – just ask our wine drinking friends – our job is to report the truth.
Yet there is a bigger question that the company needs to answer, just how the hell do they plan on competing in the stand alone CGM market when their sensor doesn’t work all that well. How can Omar Ishrak say with a straight face that this will become a billion-dollar franchise? Seriously if the people in Northridge truly believe this we want what they are smoking as we too would like to depart from reality once in a while.
Never mind that the competition has better products that continue to get better. No don’t even look at the competition look at what Medtronic is selling, examine the MAUDE database and skip the pump and/or reservoir issues, just look at the reports related to the sensor. Go on Facebook or any other social media platform and read what patients are saying. Talk with endo’s who prescribe these systems.
We can tell you exactly what you’ll find – when the damn thing works its great, but it doesn’t work often and compared to the competition its flat out inferior. What’s crazy here is that the analyst are buying into the crap the company is shoveling. Honestly if we didn’t know better we’d say it’s the analysts who are on the Medtronic payroll as anyone who bothers to do even the slightest due diligence would see what is clearly evident.
Unless major changes are made this product doesn’t stand an ice cubes chance in hell. Medtronic has a serious problem on their hands and all the BS about how one day in the very distant future this pig will fly is just bullshit. Yes, the CGM market is growing, yes CGM is replacing BGM but BGM is better than a CGM that doesn’t work or delivers inaccurate readings more than it does accurate readings.
Once again Medtronic is becoming their own worst enemy. Listen we could care less what they say publicly embarrassing as it may be, but no one internally wants to do the right thing. It’s one big blind family in Northridge these days and this willful blindness is going to come back and bite them right in the ass. Think of what would happen if the FDA comes a calling.
Quite frankly we have gone out of our way in the past to understand what the company is doing and why they are doing it. We listened and thought ok maybe this isn’t putting lipstick on a pig, maybe there is a niche market for this piece of crap. Well we be deluded no longer as with most things those pesky facts lead the way to the truth. There are just too many reports, too many patients complaining, too much consistency in the stories we hear from endo’s to believe differently.
Perhaps this is why whenever Omar speaks about the stand alone CGM market he’s so cute and coy with his remarks. “We’ll be a billion-dollar franchise …. One day”. He’s lucky he’s not Pinocchio as his nose would be longer than an Amtrak train. What’s laughable here is that the analyst are so damn gullible they actually believe that pigs can fly.
Yet this is just par for the course at Medtronic as this company just can’t stand prosperity. It’s not enough that they own the insulin pump market, that for all practical purposes they have a monopoly. It’s not enough that they were the first company to get a hybrid closed loop system, flawed as it may be, approved by the FDA. It’s not enough that JNJ surrendered exited the pump market and gave Medtronic the Animas patient base. Nope let’s screw up what is a very good thing by ignoring the truth and giving vastly exaggerated claims to the investment community.
As we have said before we have no issue with the company making boatloads of money. What we are opposed to is willful blindness combined with hubris.
