Health Canada Clears MiniMed 770G Automated Insulin Delivery System
By Eliza Skoler
By Eliza Skoler
The MiniMed 770G system automatically delivers basal insulin based on real-time glucose data and is controlled through a smartphone app. The automated insulin delivery system is expected to be available in Canada in early 2021.
Medtronic’s MiniMed 770G automated insulin delivery (AID) system has been cleared in Canada for people with type 1 diabetes as young as two years of age. This makes the 770G system the second AID system available in Canada (after Control-IQ) – it combines real-time continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data with an insulin pump to calculate and deliver basal (background or long-acting) insulin automatically.
The 770G system uses the Guardian Sensor 3 CGM and the MiniMed 780G insulin pump, with the original MiniMed AID algorithm (built for the MiniMed 670G system). The system has Bluetooth connectivity, which means that the insulin pump can be controlled via smartphone on the MiniMed mobile app. It also allows users and care-partners to access and share glucose and insulin data remotely using the CareLink Connect app – a particularly important feature given the reliance on telehealth at this time. To learn more about the system, read our previous article on the MiniMed 770G.
Medtronic Canada expects that the 770G system will be available in early 2021. New users who buy MiniMed insulin pumps now will be able to upgrade to the 770G system for free until the end of January 2021. Dr. Lawrence Leiter, Director of the Lipid Clinic and Associate Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre in Toronto, is particularly enthusiastic about this approval. He says, “it is exciting to see this next step in the evolution towards a closed-loop pump now approved in Canada. I expect that it will decrease some of the burden of managing glycemia for our patients with type 1 diabetes and their families.”
The 770G system was cleared in the US earlier this year and has been available to people as young as two since November.
