They Rob Banks Because That’s Where The Money Is
It never ceases to amaze Diabetic Investor the length some companies will go to in attempt to swindle investors. For years we’ve been writing about the various exploits and shenanigans that go on in the non-invasive glucose monitoring space. A quest that has seen more than its share of snake oil salesmen. The latest twist on this scam is the growing number of companies who are now peddling non-invasive continuous monitoring systems. Some may recall that C8 Medisensors swindled $8 million out of GE before they went belly up.
Yet as much as we continue to expose these scams like bacteria they continue to grow. Here is the latest according to a company issued press release;
“Echo Therapeutics, Inc. ECTE, +4.98% a medical device company focused on non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring and associated technologies, today announced that it has achieved its wireless mobile communication milestone, making it now possible for its continuous glucose sensor to transmit data to any mobile platform. This achievement marks the first key step in the strategic transformation of the Company’s technology from a hospital-based medical system to a consumer product in both the wearable-health and diabetes segments.”
As impressive as this may sound it really isn’t that impressive nor is Echo the first company to achieve this. Dexcom (NASDAQ:DXCM) a real company with actual products that work and one of the finest management teams in diabetes did this a long time. Yet this is pretty much par for the course when it comes to Echo yet another company that’s really good at putting out press releases but way short on making a product that actually works.
To say that Echo has a checkered history is like saying Kentucky has pretty good basketball team. Now we won’t bore everyone with all the gory details, nor will we regurgitate what we have written in the past. The simple truth is Echo has about as much chance of successfully commercializing a non-invasive continuous monitor as Diabetic Investor has getting a dinner invite from Serge Weinberg.
Still this won’t stop Echo from continually issuing meaningless press releases for as the song goes this is how they roll. Nor will the fact that this company has nothing of substance stop investors from buying into the hype, the dream, the fantasy. As much as we hate to say it Echo and other companies like them will continue to swindle investors until the well runs dry. It really doesn’t seem to matter that no one has ever come close to commercializing a non-invasive monitor of any kind. Nope no one seems to care that these snake oil salesmen continually reinvent themselves, put out a new shingle and do it all over again.
As Momma Kliff used to say there’s a reason people rob banks, that’s where the money is. Well when it comes to legalized stealing starting a non-invasive glucose monitoring is the next best thing.
