One thing we didn’t hear
Yesterday Apple held a media event to provide more detailed information on their new Apple Watch. Yet noticeably absent from this presentation was any indication that this way cool and fairly expensive new toy would revolutionize diabetes management. Yes this way cool device will collect data from the Dexcom (NASDAQ:DXCM) system but it won’t measure glucose in anyway. The Apple Watch is NOT the GlucoWatch reincarnated.
Prior to the event there was a great deal of speculation that Apple had cracked the code, that they had actually developed a version of the Apple Watch that would measure glucose and do so non-invasively. Frankly Diabetic Investor never expected this not just because non-invasive glucose monitoring is nothing more than a pipedream, we actually expected this as Apple has been distancing themselves a little from the whole medical device aspects of their way cool consumer devices.
We hate to say we told you so but all these techy companies live in a world of 6 month product cycles, a world devoid of the FDA. No clinical trials, no requests for studies, no meetings with the agency and no crazy requests. As we noted in the past one of our greatest wishes was to be an observer of a meeting between Apple officials and the FDA. We could only imagine the dumbfounded look on the faces of the Apple folk when the FDA spoke.
This is one reason existing diabetes device companies have value and could easily end up in the hands of cash rich tech companies. While companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Samsung are good at developing way cool consumer devices they lack any knowledge of the wacky world of diabetes. Even worse they lack the skill set necessary to navigate the agency that controls the keys to the kingdom, the FDA.
As we have noted many times it’s just a matter of time before interconnected diabetes management (IDM) becomes the standard of care. As we have also stated moving towards IDM is no longer about technology as the technology exists today. The move towards IDM is largely dependent on two areas, outcomes based reimbursement and an FDA that lives in the present and sees the future.
Diabetic Investor suspects it’s just a matter of time before we see these tech players buy their way into the diabetes device world. Tech players have already made substantial behind the scenes investments but the day is coming when they go public. And to be quite candid we can’t wait. Times are changing everyone and none too soon.
