Dexcom has introduced a giant step in its marketing campaign to convey steady glucose monitoring (CGM) know-how to everybody with diabetes. Subsequent 12 months, the enterprise will launch a brand new sensor designed for individuals with kind 2 diabetes who don’t require insulin.
The brand new Dexcom product, which doesn’t but have a reputation, can have the identical bodily sensor as the brand new Dexcom G7, however with a brand new streamlined app and new options. It can additionally lack among the unique mannequin’s options that have been designed for insulin customers with kind 1 and kind 2 diabetes. Every sensor can have a 15-day life, and Dexcom will present a brand new cash-pay choice for sufferers who can’t entry the system by their insurance coverage.
Jake Leach, Dexcom’s government vp and chief working officer, chatted with Diabetes Each day and previewed the product for us.
New Options
The brand new product is not going to be bodily totally different — it’s the identical sensor because the G7. Leach emphasised that the brand new product maintains the identical excessive requirements for “efficiency, accuracy, and reliability,” even when customers that don’t require intensive insulin administration may appear to have a much less severe want for pinpoint accuracy: “We do really feel just like the efficiency of the sensor is actually essential.”
The key variations will include the redesigned app. The present G7 app has many options which might be possible of little curiosity to sufferers who don’t require insulin, together with alarms for low glucose ranges and Observe, which lets members of the family or mates observe the consumer’s blood sugar measurements remotely.
Though Leach didn’t provide too many particulars, he hinted that the brand new app can be extra participating than the present G7 app:
“It’s actually centered on giving suggestions and insights round how weight-reduction plan, exercise, sleep, and stress influence glucose. The app offers customers insights in order that they will make selections which might be proper for them. It helps individuals get essentially the most out of their CGM.”
“It’s a singular software program expertise,” Leach stated, “uniquely designed for customers that aren’t managing their diabetes with insulin.”
The Worth of CGM Knowledge in Folks Who Don’t Use Insulin
There are about 28 million Individuals with diabetes who don’t use insulin, and a few specialists have expressed doubt that they actually require CGM know-how. Sufferers that don’t use insulin, typically talking, don’t want to test their blood sugar measurements all that often, in line with authorities just like the American Diabetes Affiliation, particularly if they’re doing a superb job of assembly the blood sugar targets set by their clinicians.
Till just lately, using CGM know-how was largely restricted to individuals with kind 1 diabetes, who tremendously profit from one of many system’s most pivotal features: a blaring alarm to warn customers of harmful hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Previously a number of years, insurers have grow to be extra wanting to cowl the price of CGMs for individuals with kind 2 diabetes that use insulin, who even have a lesser however nonetheless substantial danger of hypoglycemia. Most just lately, Medicare introduced that it might cowl CGMs for individuals with kind 2 who use solely basal insulin, and personal insurers are quickly following the federal government’s lead.
Protection for individuals with kind 2 diabetes that don’t use insulin in any respect, nonetheless, stays uncommon.
Leach contends that CGM know-how can nonetheless be extremely helpful for such sufferers, as a result of insights it offers:
“The No. 1 factor that they’re studying is how various factors comparable to remedy, sleep, bodily exercise, and (most significantly) weight-reduction plan influence their glucose management.”
“The product is designed to offer individuals the insights they want to allow them to make the selections which might be proper for them and assist them get higher glucose management and higher management of their diabetes.”
Scientists affiliated with Dexcom just lately introduced knowledge from a real-world examine of adults with kind 2 who didn’t require insulin. Over the course of three months with the G6 CGM, examine members:
- Improved their time-in-range from about 40 % to about 56 %
- Improved their glucose administration indicator (GMI), an estimate of A1C, from 8.2 % to 7.7 %
- Improved their imply glucose stage from 203 mg/dL to 182 mg/dL
Dexcom has additionally supported the work of Thomas Grace, MD, who discovered much more spectacular outcomes when he helped distribute CGMs to actual sufferers in his group.
Insurance coverage Protection and the Money-Pay Possibility
Extra strong experiments and research, nonetheless, will probably be wanted to persuade insurers.
Leach says that CGM advocates must show that the know-how results in constructive “scientific and financial outcomes” in individuals with kind 2 diabetes that don’t use insulin. In different phrases, CGMs must make individuals more healthy and save insurers cash. Although the know-how could be costly, if CGMs can delay and even eradicate the necessity for dearer medicines or different pricey interventions by enhancing blood sugar management, they could pay for themselves.
Within the meantime, Dexcom will debut a cash-pay choice, permitting clients to pay out of pocket with out having to undergo their insurance coverage.
“We wish this to be as approachable and accessible as potential,” Leach says.
It’s potential to purchase G7 sensors as we speak with out utilizing medical health insurance — as we speak, a 30-day provide price $377 on Amazon’s on-line pharmacy — an choice that it appears comparatively few clients use. Leach didn’t provide any numbers, however recommended that the brand new Dexcom product for customers with out insulin can be cheaper.
Leach additionally understands that individuals with out diabetes is perhaps inquisitive about buying the brand new sensors:
“We actually consider in the advantages of CGM to a broad inhabitants, even past diabetes. Glucose management is without doubt one of the main indicators of metabolic well being and a extremely essential facet of general well being.”
Leach says that the brand new Dexcom product will probably be launched in some unspecified time in the future in 2024.
