Makers of drugs and medical devices are clamoring for partnerships to expand their reach in the growing market for digital tools to manage diabetes, especially in the U.S. where about 30 million people live with the condition and 84 million are at risk of developing it.
Recently, France's Sanofi announced a collaboration to merge datapoints from Abbott Laboratories' FreeStyle Libre mobile application with its insulin pens, mirroring fellow insulin-maker Novo Nordisk A/S' agreement with Medtronic PLC to integrate data from the tools company's continuous glucose monitoring, or CGM, devices with Novo Nordisk's smart insulin pens.
Freestyle Libre is a continuous glucose monitoring system that allows patients to track their glucose level throughout the day via a sensor on their arm. Devices like smartphones can make a wireless connection with the sensor to track and display the data.
Sanofi and Abbott plan to market their consolidated services in the next few years, pending regulatory approvals. Medtronic's CGM devices would be updated when Novo launches NovoPen 6 and NovoPen Echo Plus in 2020.
The nonexclusive nature of these collaborations means pharmaceutical companies can have simultaneous partnerships with several device-makers and tech companies. For example, Abbott's FreeStyle Libre mobile application will also be updated to have compatibility with Novo's new insulin pens next year.
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Another key insulin-maker, Eli Lilly and Co., whose diabetes therapy Trulicity is slated to face stiff competition from Novo's recently approved oral diabetes treatment Rybelsus, is also developing an automated insulin delivery system in collaboration with DexCom Inc.'s G6 glucose monitoring device.
Abbott and Medtronic have been riding a wave of success with diabetes-related medical devices. Abbott saw a boost in its earnings during the second quarter of the year thanks to FreeStyle Libre's worldwide sales of $433 million, while Medtronic's diabetes business grew 3.5% in the last earnings period to $592 million in revenue, with international sales offsetting declines in the U.S.
Meanwhile, DexCom's G6 device — the first FDA-approved CGM product to be used as part of an integrated system with other compatible medical devices and electronic interfaces — helped boost DexCom's second-quarter revenue by 39% year over year to $336.4 million.
Major tech companies are also looking to cater to the diabetes market, most notably Verily Life Sciences LLC, an arm of Alphabet Inc. — Google's parent company. Verily has collaborated with Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi and Japan's Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. to apply digital technology to clinical research programs in an effort to make them more patient-centric. The pharmaceutical companies involved then plan to use the platform to monitor diseases like diabetes.
According to Yahoo Finance, the U.S. holds 87% of the market share in the North American diabetes devices market, and within that, diabetes management devices like CGM occupy a 63.6% share. Major healthcare equipment companies like Abbott have indicated they want to expand the reach of their diabetes products, propelling them to blockbuster categories by raking in more than $1 billion in sales every year, and digital management of diabetes could help makers of drugs and medical devices reach a mass market.

