Insulet celebrates Apple season with FDA clearance for Omnipod 5 iPhone app by Andrea Park for FierceBioTech.com, 23 October 2023.
Insulet has earned FDA clearance for the iPhone version of an app allowing users to control their Omnipod 5 insulin pumps from their own smartphones. Meanwhile, the app has been available to Android owners since the pump’s full U.S. launch began a year ago.
In Insulet’s announcement about the Apple clearance, Eric Benjamin, the company’s chief product and customer experience officer, hailed the impending launch of the app as a “significant milestone in our ongoing effort to provide people with diabetes solutions that improve their lives and help them think less about diabetes.”
The app acts as an alternative to the Omnipod 5 controller—which comes free with a user’s first prescription to the insulin pump—allowing them to avoid carrying around an extra device to manage the pump.
Read more: Insulet celebrates Apple season with FDA clearance for Omnipod 5 iPhone app
Time magazine published their annual The Best Inventions of 2023.
Tandem Diabetes Care is listed for its new Tandem Mobi insulin pump. Tandem claims that its Tandem Mobi is the smallest durable automated insulin delivery system, and is so tiny “it can fit in a coin pocket.” The size makes the device more discreet than others, and it works both manually and with a smartphone.
Can an eye implant treat both type 1 and 2 diabetes? by Corrie Pelc for MedicalNewsToday.com, 24 October 2023
In a new study, researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a tiny device that can be implanted into the eye to treat both types of diabetes and potentially other diseases. The findings were published in the journal Advanced Materials.
The device is 3D printed, wedge-shaped, and is about 240 micrometers long. It is designed to be placed in the space between the iris and cornea called the anterior chamber. The scientists reported that this new device allows specific microorganisms to be delivered directly through the eye without the need for sutures.
“The eye is, as we say, the ‘only window into the body’ where we can noninvasively monitor the transplant,” Dr. Anna Herland, senior lecturer in the Division of Bionanotechnology at SciLifeLab at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the AIMES research center at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institutet, and co-lead author of this study explainedExpress about what makes the eye a good candidate for this type of treatment. “The eye is also immune privileged and avoids first immune reactions,” she detailed.
The purpose of the tiny eye implant is to deliver microorganisms for disease treatment. The device was designed to have a micro-cage with a “flap door technique” to release the microorganisms. In the case of treating diabetes, researchers used pancreatic islets — also known as islets of Langerhans — which are cells from the pancreas that can help restore insulin production.
Read more: Can an eye implant treat both type 1 and 2 diabetes?
DexCom stock soars +14% after hours on raised revenue guidance, $500M share buyback by Anuron Mitra for SeekingAlpha.com, 26 October 2023.
Shares of DexCom surged more than 14% in extended trading after the medical device maker raised its full-year revenue guidance and announced a new $500M share buyback. DXCM stock jumped 14.1% to $92.50 after hours. The company posted Q3 adjusted earnings per share of $0.50, which beat estimates by 17 cents. Revenue jumped nearly 27% Y/Y to $975M, beating expectations by $37.38M.
In Q3, the company’s revenue growth was driven by increased volume as well as strong new customer additions, amid increasing awareness of real-time continuous glucose monitoring. “Our continued momentum has left us in a great position to again raise our full-year revenue and margin guidance and finish a strong 2023,” DexCom CEO Kevin Sayer said. DXCM now sees full-year revenue of about $3.575B to $3.6B, compared to a prior forecast of $3.50B to $3.55B. The consensus revenue estimate is $3.54B.
Read more: DexCom stock soars +14% after hours
Express Scripts sued by independent pharmacies over alleged price fixing by Rebecca Pifer for HealthCareDive.com, 23 October 2023.
A group of independent pharmacies is suing Cigna-owned Express Scripts for allegedly colluding with rival pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics. The proposed class action lawsuit filed in Wisconsin accuses Express Scripts — one of the largest PBMs in the U.S. — of inking a three-year deal with Prime in 2019 to fix reimbursement rates and fees, in violation of the Sherman Act.
Prime previously collected lower fees from pharmacies and reimbursed them more for dispensing drugs than Express Scripts, because of its smaller market size. But after the deal, the PBM charged the same transaction fees and reimbursed at the same level as Express Scripts, according to the suit.
Read more: Express Scripts sued by independent pharmacies over alleged price fixing
You can now diagnose diabetes by speaking into your phone by Loukia Papadopoulos for InterestingEngineering.com, 18 October 2023.
Determining whether someone has diabetes involves various diagnostic tests and assessments such as the glycated hemoglobin (A1C) approach, along with the fasting blood glucose (FBG) test and the OGTT, all of which include a trip to your doctor’s office and a long waiting period.
According to a ground-breaking study from software solution firm Klick Labs, a new method that blends speech technology with artificial intelligence offers a significant step forward in quick and efficient diabetes detection. The approach works simply by asking someone to speak a few lines into their smartphone in order to quickly reveal whether they are diabetic.
In the new work, the age, sex, height, and weight of persons were combined with six to ten seconds of their speech to construct an AI model that could determine whether someone has Type 2 diabetes, the more treatable form of the disease. Type 1 diabetes is usually autoimmune and requires insulin treatment, while Type 2 diabetes may initially be managed with lifestyle changes, oral medications, or insulin, depending on severity. The accuracy of the model was found to be 89 percent for women and 86 percent for men.
“Our research highlights significant vocal variations between individuals with and without Type 2 diabetes and could transform how the medical community screens for diabetes,” said Jaycee Kaufman, first author of the paper and research scientist at Klick Labs. “Current methods of detection can require a lot of time, travel, and cost. Voice technology has the potential to remove these barriers entirely.”
Read more: You can now diagnose diabetes by speaking into your phone
Halloween and Diabetes by Children with Diabetes, 2023.
Kids with diabetes face a challenge on Halloween: what to do with all the candy. While their friends are busy gorging on their trick-or-treat haul, kids with diabetes are often asked to be more careful or more mindful. But being careful doesn’t mean that kids with diabetes shouldn’t enjoy the treats — they can and they should if that’s what they choose!
The issue is integrating the treats into the child’s meal plan so as to minimize the disruption in blood glucose control. (Essentially, how to enjoy the treats without dealing with too many blood sugar tricks.) With fast-acting insulins like NovoLog, Humalog, and Fiasp, more and more families simply integrate candy into their child’s meal plan.
Read more: Halloween and Diabetes
The Beta Bionics iLet Bionic Pancreas was named on TIME’s 2023 Best Inventions list.
The eye device is fantastic. I want two, or maybe even three. Hey who knows when i might grow another eye?