Things we ponder
With the world under virtual lockdown it has become somewhat of a parole game keeping yourself amused. Let’s be honest here it’s not easy watching the news, it is possible to OD on Netflix and no matter how good it was you can only watch so many reruns of Law and Order. Frankly we are thankful we have the wacky world to keep us amused and what an amusing world it has been lately. Consider the following;
1. Right this very moment here in Chicago they are converting McCormick Place, site of this year’s ADA confab into a 3000-bed hospital, which makes us wonder why the ADA has not cancelled the conference. Yep just what we need a large gathering of people with diabetes in a city that’s one of the nation’s hotspots at a convention center which is now a hospital, makes sense no?
2. What is about us that we get under the skin of so many companies that claim to have something way cool whiz bang when in reality they have nothing more than a fancy web site. As we noted earlier in the week the good people at Nemaura haven’t been happy with our coverage, threatening legal action no less. Not being one to shy away from a good brouhaha or is that a good brew we challenged the company to a duel.
Being the nice people we are we sent an email to the company hoping we could have an enlightened discussion about their way cool whiz bang toy. Hey, we might be from Chicago but Momma Kliff always told us better to make friends than enemies. To our surprise Dr Faz Chowdhury the company’s Chairman and CEO responded. His email states;
“The technology used by sugarBEAT has never before been approved anywhere in the world.”
No kidding hence the reason we and others who understand this technology aren’t overly confident that the SugarBEAT is nothing more than yet another failed attempt at developing a non-invasive CGM.
He also notes “A wellness product is one that is not assessed by the FDA” however the press releases issued by company implies the FDA has given their blessing to market this UNAPPROVED toy as a wellness product something that we know for a fact the FDA has NOT done.
Perhaps this is the reason the company doubled down and said they would repurpose this unapproved toy to battle the coronavirus proving that chutzpah is alive and well in the United Kingdom.
3. As we noted Nemaura isn’t the only company in our wacky world claiming that their toy will help patients battle the coronavirus. Our very good friends at Livongo have also made such a claim even though their way cool whiz bang platform has nothing whatsoever to do with battling the coronavirus. Is it any wonder that after making this claim shares went up while insiders were selling only to sell off after people began to realize that Livongo’s only connection to the coronavirus is their patients are at an increased risk for contracting the virus. But hey Glen sure did look good on CNBC.
4. It seems that many of our very loyal subscribers fell for our annual April Fool’s prank when we noted that Medtronic was selling their diabetes franchise. This is not the first time we have fooled our readers and likely won’t be the last. Funny thing is while the post may have been a fib these fibs have a strange way of becoming fact. Stay tuned on this one.
5. Given that the first quarter has come to end, and companies have begun announcing when their calls will be, we are anxiously awaiting the creative ways they come up with to say how the crisis has adversely impacted their results. It will be equally interesting to hear them explain how the crisis will impact results going forward. Let’s be honest here as no one really when this crisis will end or what the true impact will be.
Over the last two weeks nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment, 90% of the country is under lockdown, we have not yet reached the peak in new cases, the projected death toll is staggering and while we all know this will eventually end not even the best experts have a clue when this happen.
Already the crisis has claimed one causality with Senseonics announcing they are basically ceasing operations. Yes this would have happened anyway but there is no question the crisis hastened the company’s demise. The question we have is not who’s next rather how many will close. We aren’t worried about the larger well-funded companies that have access to capital, yes, they will be impacted but they will survive.
Our concern are all the smaller innovative companies who don’t have access to the capital markets and are dependent on private money to survive. Although the reports we’re getting are sketchy and incomplete they do indicate the money spigot has been turned off. That deals once funded without even a thought are now being put on hold and may not be turned on when this is all over.
There is no question that this crisis once over will forever change our lives. It’s a forgone conclusion that telemedicine will become more common. Additionally we believe that interconnected diabetes management will also get a boost. Yet beyond these obvious beneficiaries of the crisis there is much we do not know and that quite frankly is just a little scary.
The best we can do now is to remain vigilant, practice social distancing, wash our hands and pray for an end to this crisis. Stay safe everyone.
