Ireland-based medical device firm Medtronic has announced its partnership with Novo Nordisk, a Danish healthcare company, to develop solutions based on insulin dosing data and smart insulin devices.
As part of the collaboration, insulin dosing data from future Novo Nordisk smart insulin pens is integrated into Medtronic’s Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices, including the Guardian Connect system.
The Guardian Connect system is a smart CGM system that helps people using multiple daily injections (MDI) to manage their diabetes with personalised insights, and marks the only CGM system capable of providing predictive alerts up to 60 minutes in advance.
Medtronic advanced insulin management division president Alejandro Galindo said: “We see incredible power in combining a variety of data points to drive insights that help people living with diabetes make more informed decisions around managing their glucose levels.
“Our new agreement with Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest producer of insulin, will streamline the sharing of two of the most important pieces of information – glucose measurements and insulin dosed. With this, Medtronic can further enhance our market-leading analytics and insights to help ease the burden of diabetes.”
Insulin dosing data and continuous glucose monitoring data tracking solution
Medtronic said that diabetes subjects spend an average of one hour a day on self-care, making it a full two years in lifetime dedicated to their disease, and the new collaboration underlines the companies′ commitment to make diabetes management easier by integrating key health technologies.
The integration of technologies enables people with diabetes and their caregivers to track the insulin dosing data and continuous glucose monitoring data in a single place.
In addition, availability of both glucose and insulin data together, would enable more informed decisions on better management of glucose levels and increase Time in Range (TIR), the percentage of time people with diabetes spend in the optimal glycaemic range of 70-180 mg/dL.
Novo Nordisk is planning to launch its durable smart insulin pens, NovoPen 6 and NovoPen Echo Plus, along with its disposable, pre-filled injection solution in 2020.
Under the partnership, Novo Nordisk’s smart insulin pens are designed to be compatible with both Android and iOS devices and Medtronics’ Guardian Connect system will also be updated to integrate data from Novo Nordisk smart pens.
Novo Nordisk commercial strategy & corporate affairs executive vice-president Camilla Sylvest said: “Millions of people living with diabetes work to control their sugar levels and track their insulin injections every day.
“To help ease the hassle of diabetes management, we are excited to be partnering with Medtronic, the largest medical device company in the world. We now collaborate with all major CGM device producers, which means we can bring the benefits of smart insulin pens to even more people.”
