Medtronic Analyst Day

On June 2, Medtronic hosted its annual “analyst day,” hosting researchers who come to hear news about the company. These days are webcast, and we were interested to hear several new and updated diabetes technologies unveiled. Of particular interest was Medtronic’s LGS (Low Glucose Suspend – a technology designed to minimize the risk of hypoglycemia by halting basal insulin when patients reach low blood glucose levels) part of the Paradigm Veo, introduced recently in the UK and Ireland, as well as the Revel Sensor-Augmented Pump (the new pump and CGM platform that includes everything but LGS), the Comfort Sensor (an improved Sof-Sensor slated for 2011), a personal CGM tagged the “Ferrari Project,” designed to replace fingersticks, and a next-generation hospital CGM (iPro Lightening). Medtronic also announced the development of a “patch pump,” which they believe will come to market in sometime after April, 2010. In terms of what the changes are that patients will see soonest, Medtronic said that the Revel will be capable of predictive and rate of change alerts. (The Paradigm REAL-Time does not currently have the predictive alert feature, though the Guardian standalone CGM does.) The Revel will also offer certain features catering to specific patient groups. Children, for example, will be offered a lower minimum basal delivery and patients with type 2 diabetes will receive a larger max bolus and advanced carb ratio calculations. Essentially Medtronic is making the pumps more customizable – always a good idea from our view.

From our view, it is unfortunate for patients and families in the US that Medtronic is still at the “discussions” stage with the FDA for the “LGS” pump when it is already approved in the EU. Given that the product enables an even safer experience for the patient wearing the pump (it turns off if patient doesn’t respond to hypoglycemia alarms), it is a little surprising and disappointing from our view that it can’t move through FDA faster. While safety is most important, of course, we would like FDA to have more resources so they could move innovative products more quickly, making sure, of course, that they are thoroughly tested.

These new developments all appear to be steps toward two major goals for Medtronic Diabetes Care: to lead the closed-loop revolution as well as to lead type 2 patients into using pump therapy.