Yep wackier by the day
There are days when Momma Kliff seems to be working overtime. Yep, just when you think things can’t get any wackier, they do. So let’s get right too it and look at some new items.
In the dah department Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) is touting the economic benefits of CGM and Type 2 patients. According to study published in the Journal of Medical Economics;
“Significant clinical benefits were observed for patients who used professional CGM. Economic benefits were observed for patients who utilized professional CGM more than once within a 1-year period or who used it during a change of diabetes therapy. This suggests that professional CGM may help decrease rising trends in healthcare costs for people with type 2 diabetes, while also improving clinical outcomes.”
Now we don’t want to say this should be overly obvious but in our study obsessed world it’s nice to have real data backing up what everyone already knows. The question is how long it will take everyone else to accept the fact that CGM is quickly becoming the standard for glucose measurement and not just for Type 1 patients but ALL patients with diabetes. Maybe this is why Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) just might be stuck with their LifeScan franchise as who wants to buy an outdated soon to obsolete technology. Yep JNJ could be the one company that is forced to shut down two diabetes device franchises.
In the if you can’t beat them sue them department, our wine drinking friends in France are keeping their lawyers busy this time suing Mylan. Yesterday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) alleges that Mylan has infringed upon 18 patents covering Sanofi’s Lantus insulin glargine injection and SoloStar pen. It should be noted that our chardonnay guzzling friends are also suing Merck (NYSE: MRK) over two Lantus patents.
These lawsuits are in sharp contrast to Lilly’s (NYSE: LLY) not to sue Sanofi over their short-acting biosimilar insulin. A refreshing decision that shows Lilly will actually compete and not sue for the sake of suing. Yep Sanofi has once again proven that when you have no strategy, when you are clueless the only option left is to sue. Seriously do we need any further evidence on how poorly our good buddy Serge and his partner in crime Olivier have run this once highly profitable franchise into the ground.
Sanofi is the poster child for the fact that if you want a small fortune best to start with a big one.
In the chutzpah department our friends at OneDrop have begun running TV ads. The company has also been aggressively promoting their system on social media stating patients can lower their A1c in just two months. Now we need not remind everyone that these claims aren’t backed up by REAL data done in a REAL clinical trial but are based on self-reported data with lots of fuzzy math.
What’s laughable here other than this crap OneDrop claims is proof their system works, is SMBG is dying. That this technology will soon become obsolete and be replaced by CGM. Why anyone takes OneDrop seriously is beyond us. And for a company that claims they are some little start up with a handful of employees they sure are spending a ton of money. Which just goes to show that Sanofi isn’t the only company who can turn a big fortune into a small one.
See what all these way cool whiz bang interconnected companies miss is not just that CGM will kill them, but the companies in the CGM market will offer the same patient coaching. Companies that have lots of money and will think nothing of spending it to build better more patient friendly systems that have better data too. They foolishly believe they will be bought because of their patient coaching platforms when these platforms are easily replicated.
Listen we may have tons of fun with Alexa and Siri but Amazon, Apple and Google are all making the deep in dive into diabetes. Google is aligned with Dexcom (NASDAQ: DXCM) while Amazon and Apple could easily align themselves with Abbott (NYSE: ABT) and make a real game of it. So just what does a company like OneDrop bring to the table other than chutzpah.
