Dive Brief:

• Dexcom next year will introduce a continuous glucose monitor aimed at the 25 million non-insulin-using Americans with Type 2 diabetes.
• The CGM, which is based on the Dexcom G7, will last for 15 days, include a cash-pay option and come with software designed for the needs of people who are yet to require insulin.
• Dexcom’s analysis shows those patients want help understanding the effect of lifestyle on blood glucose and staying off insulin, leading the company to develop a revised set of features for the new device. 

Dive Insight:

While about half of people with Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 patients on intensive insulin therapy use a CGM, according to Dexcom, they make up a fraction of the overall population. With its new device, the company is targeting the more than 25 million people in the U.S. who have Type 2 diabetes but do not take insulin.

Fewer than 5% of those patients use a CGM, according to Dexcom’s data. Teri Lawver, chief commercial officer at Dexcom, said at the company’s June 23 investor meeting that the figures reveal “a significant unmet need for continuous glucose sensing in this broader market.”

Lawver also discussed some of the specific needs of these patients. 

“These customers want personal insights to optimize their nutrition and exercise routines, and they want those insights without the burden of unnecessary alarms and alerts throughout the day. This population is highly motivated — they deeply fear progressing to injectable therapies and to insulin — and while this population is generally treated in the primary care office, they are more likely to make their own decision about a CGM,” Lawver said.

Those needs differ from the priorities of the patients that Dexcom has targeted so far, leading it to adapt its current G7 device to the new population. Lawver said Dexcom is “taking a multifaceted approach to addressing these needs, leveraging digital health partnerships, pursuing reimbursement and building a software package that is customized to this population.” 

Jake Leach, chief operating officer at Dexcom, said at the investor day that non-insulin patients are concerned with connecting the dots to show how diet, physical activity and medication impacts glucose readings. Leach added that he sees CGMs as the best tool for helping people to understand their glucose dynamics. 

While Dexcom hasn’t discussed the device’s full feature set or price, citing confidentiality reasons, Lawver said the company’s customer insights show “current products on the market do not fully meet the needs of this population.”