That didn’t take long
Now this is actually pretty cool as Berlin is 6 hours ahead of New York, 7 from my hometown of Chicago and a whopping 9 hours from all my friends in the Valley. Which basically means we can write after the day is over and not worry about it getting to everyone during the work day. Not that means a whole heck of a lot but we still think its cool.
Right out of the box from the no surprise here department Novo Nordisk announced they are launching … wait for it … a Tyler. Per a press release:
“Novo Nordisk today announced plans to make the durable, connected insulin pens NovoPen® 6 and NovoPen Echo® Plus commercially available across key markets commencing in early 2019. In parallel, to support the future integration of its connected pens with broader digital health solution, Novo Nordisk has signed new partnership agreements with leading diabetes technology companies that share Novo Nordisk’s vision to improve the lives of people with diabetes: Dexcom, Glooko and Roche.”
As we have been saying it wasn’t a question of if Tyler would get here but when. The harsh reality here is the Novo is doing what they can to protect their insulin franchise. Insulin has become a commodity and in a commodity market price trumps everything unless your commodity can somehow be repackaged so it’s no longer a commodity.
Now you can bet the ranch that Lilly who at one time had an agreement with Companion Medical who has an existing connected durable pen plus an app too – will have a Tyler of their own as well everyone else in the diabetes device sector.
The folks in Northridge, San Diego and Boston should be paying very close attention to this as Tyler is the largest threat to the future growth of the insulin pump market. We hate to be redundant but this is all about money and Tyler is a heck of a lot cheaper than a 670G or Basal IQ and payors want cheap. Even better Tyler will produce pump like outcomes which payors like even more as it gives them cover for promoting a cheaper Tyler over a more expensive insulin pump.
Switching gears completely useless studies are not just an American thing they are also a European thing too. Looking at the various press releases that have been issued imagine how we were surprised to learn there is a connection between diabetes and obesity – really ya think. Or that there is link between early menopause and type 2 diabetes.
Listen menopause is bad enough but seriously will someone please explain to us what a woman will do with this piece of information, other than seriously bitch slap the researchers for giving her this useless information.
Listen in the real world researchers really don’t give a damn if what they are researching is relevant or not. They want to get published so they can get more money to do more research so they can publish more get more money — are we getting this yet. And quite honestly we’d have no fun whatsoever if they didn’t keep publishing this crap and lets be honest we all need a good laugh now and then.
Well that’s all for now.
