Start-Up News May 2008
Executive Summary
Noteworthy news from medtech start-ups, including Ortho Kinematics, developing a diagnostic for spine function, and Glucotec, which can progam insulin pumps from blood glucose readings and automate insulin delivery.
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Continuous Glucose Monitoring: A Revolution Powered by DexCom
Small company DexCom, finds itself a leader in continuous glucose monitoring, the hottest new segment of glucose monitoring, a business otherwise dominated by giant companies. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is all the buzz at diabetes and critical care clinical meetings these days. CGM systems give diabetic patients in the home (or the hospital) glucose readings at any hour of the day without the need to get out the finger-stick testing paraphernalia. More than that, though, CGM is a new tool for achieving tight glycemic control, and avoiding the excursions above and below the normal glucose levels, which are responsible for the hospitalizations as well as the long-term harmful consequences of diabetes. As a frontrunner in the field, DexCom shares with Medtronic the challenge of proving the value of CGM to payers, especially since the task involves throwing over the gold standard by which successful glycemic control is measured-the HbA1c test.
Ortho Dx: Where Does It Hurt?
Lost in the rush to develop better implants and devices to treat orthopedic injury is the need for better diagnostics capable of pinpointing injury and foretelling the onset of disease. A group of companies is working on just that.
Devices for a Diabetes Epidemic
With an increasing emphasis on tight glycemic control in diabetes care, innovative devices could play a big role, but diabetes is a deceptively complex market. Innovative companies need to differentiate themselves, yet not venture too far outside existing industry dynamics. As the first real-time continuous glucose monitors come to market, a handful of start-ups hopes to be ready for the second generation. Many of these are taking a side excursion into the market for in-hospital glucose monitoring, once a sleepy market but now growing rapidly as outcomes data shows reduced mortality and morbidty in intensively managed hyperglycemic hospital patients.