Livongo announced that its Livongo for Diabetes program now integrates with Amazon Alexa to provide glucose values and health tips via Alexa voice commands. According to the press release, the integration is HIPAA compliant. Below, FENIX provides brief thoughts on the initial Alexa integration.
DarioHealth announced a joint marketing agreement with Glytec to allow Dario’s connected BGM to integrate into Glytec’s Glucommander Outpatient insulin titration solution. Below, FENIX provides thoughts on why the partnership between Glytec and Dario makes sense for both companies.
Senseonics hosted its Q4 ’18 earnings call and provided updates to its Eversense clinical and commercial activities. Of note, Senseonics is launching a new bridge program to help drive user adoption. Recall, Senseonics recently renewed its distribution agreement with Roche and hired Fran Kaufman, former Medtronic CMO. Below, FENIX provides highlights and insights from the earnings call including updates to the Senseonics pipeline.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Livongo is preparing for an IPO in 2019. According to the story, Livongo has already approached Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan to underwrite the IPO with a company valuation >$1B. Recall, in March 2017, Livongo raised $52.2M in a growth round, and in April 2018, it raised an additional $105M with a total of $240M in private financing (previous FENIX insight). Below, FENIX provides additional thoughts on the Livongo IPO.
Dexcom has reportedly lost its appeals court bid to reinitiate its patent dispute vs. AgaMatrix. Previously, Dexcom alleged that Agamatrix’s CGM technology infringed on Dexcom’s patents for improving sensor accuracy. Recall, AgaMatrix (and its subsidiary WaveForm) acquired CGM IP from iSense and Bayer in early 2016. Below, FENIX provides a brief overview of the litigation history between AgaMatrix and Dexcom as well as thoughts on potential resolutions.
Senseonics announced the appointment of Francine Kaufman as Chief Medical Officer (pictured below). Kaufman is a pediatric endocrinologist and most recently worked at Medtronic as the CMO and VP of Global Clinical, Regulatory, and Medical Affairs. Below, FENIX provides thoughts on how Kaufman immediately provides significant credibility to Senseonics during the critical Eversense implantable CGM launch phase.
Glooko announced it is removing the subscription fee for its data management platform. Previously, users who did not have coverage through their insurance or employers were required to pay a fee to access the platform. Additionally, the Glooko/Senseonics data integration appears to be complete. Now, users can directly sync Eversense data to the Glooko platform via the Senseonics Cloud. Below, FENIX provides thoughts on Glooko’s new business model as well as insight into how the integration with Eversense likely benefits Senseonics more than Glooko.
Dexcom hosted its Q4 ’18 earnings call and provided updates to its diabetes business including an announcement that the company is expanding its customer and technical support capabilities through ex-US resources. As such, Dexcom is downsizing an undisclosed portion of its US workforce. Below, FENIX provides highlights and insights from the earnings call.
Three diabetes device-related press releases were observed today including a new Biocorp/DreaMed partnership, as well as Abbott Libre and Valeritas V-Go patch pump RWE, presented at ATTD 2019. Below, FENIX provides an overview of the news as well as thoughts on how the Biocorp/DreaMed partnership appears to favor DreaMed.
Today, Abbott and Novo Nordisk announced a non-exclusive partnership to integrate insulin dosing data from Novo’s connected insulin pens into Abbott’s digital health tools compatible with the FreeStyle Libre system. Below, FENIX provides insights into the Novo/Abbott partnership.