Some additional “Nuggets”
In the never ending quest to jump on the iPhone bandwagon yet another diabetes device company is coming out with a blood glucose meter that attaches to this widely popular cell phone. It also should surprise no one that this device is coming from privately held AgaMatrix and their new partner Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY). The device currently code named the nugget, will attach to an iPhone and seamlessly integrate with the AgaMatrix existing iPhone app.
Although Diabetic Investor has not yet seen the final version of the product, what we do know so far is that device will be way cool and likely will be a hit with the diabetes iPhone crowd. Diabetic Investor believes the companies will introduce the product shortly before or at the upcoming EASD conference.
This combination of a glucose monitor with an iPhone also plays well into Sanofi’s diabetes strategy. As Diabetic Investor has been predicting the company is moving towards a system based approach rather than the traditional sell one product and move on approach. Not only will this system include the drugs and devices used to manage diabetes but will expand into patient assistance. Sanofi seems to understand something that Diabetic Investor has been saying for years in that it doesn’t matter how good drugs and devices are if the patient doesn’t use them on a regular basis.
While most companies talk a good game about helping patients, in the real world it’s all about how do we sell more products this quarter than we did last quarter. The real question here is can Sanofi pull everything together, get everything to work and make money at the same time. The company has stated on more than one occasion they plan to be “the” major player in diabetes, specifically targeting Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) as their main rival. The company is backing their talk with resources, human and financial, to make things interesting.
As Diabetic Investor has stated previously their move into BGM while interesting also comes with the realities of the market. As cool as the Nugget will be, the cool factor won’t get the device on formulary. If the company is truly serious about being a player in this highly competitive market, at some point they will have to step to the plate and buy someone like Abbott (NYSE:ABT) or Bayer. Something that could happen sooner than people think as Abbott is cleaning house at their diabetes division and setting up the division to be sold. The one factor that might prevent Abbott from selling would be such a sale would be an admission that they have screwed up two diabetes acquisitions, first Medisense and then Therasense. Given everything that’s going on at Abbott, Diabetic Investor sees the chances of the division being sold increasing.
Should Sanofi be the acquiring company, this would likely set of a chain of events that could forever alert the diabetes landscape and set the table for even more acquisitions. No matter what happens one thing is certain, everyone is watching and waiting to see what Sanofi does next. Things are getting more interesting by the day and frankly more fun. As they used to say during the golden age of television, don’t change the channel as you just might some really big news.
