Dive Brief:

• Embecta presented two abstracts at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions last weekend making the case for its insulin patch pump for Type 2 diabetes. The company submitted the device for Food and Drug Administration clearance in late 2023.
• The diabetes device company developed a patch pump with a larger insulin reservoir that can hold up to 300 units. By comparison, Insulet’s Omnipod 5 can hold 200 units of insulin in its reservoir. 
• Embecta presented data that “reaffirms what we’ve learned from speaking with people living with diabetes and their healthcare providers: There is a critical unmet need among the [Type 2 diabetes] population for pumps with a larger insulin reservoir,” Chief Medical Officer Henry Anhalt said in a statement. 

Dive Insight:

After Insulet brought the first insulin patch pumps to market the U.S. in 2005, other companies are looking to develop their own versions. Tandem Diabetes Care is developing a rechargeable patch pump after acquiring AMF Medical, and Medtronic is also developing a patch pump after calling off its planned acquisition of EOFlow. 

Embecta, which is better known for making equipment such as pen needles and insulin syringes, has been developing its first patch pump. The company found that a device with a larger insulin reservoir could provide longer wear times and fewer disposable patches. 

The company presented two abstracts at ADA last weekend making the case for a larger insulin reservoir. One of the papers found that the mean total daily dose of insulin across more than 41,000 adults with Type 2 diabetes who take multiple daily injections was 96 units. 

Factors associated with a higher total daily dose include increase in body mass index, and prescription of SGLT-2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists. Factors associated with a lower daily dose include taking more non-insulin medications. 

Women and African-American people also had a lower daily dose, according to the paper co-authored by Viral Shah, director of diabetes clinical research at the IU Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Indiana University School of Medicine.

The other abstract considered whether a 200-unit or 300-unit reservoir would be sufficient for that cohort of adults, assuming a mean daily dose of 96 units of insulin per day, plus or minus 58 units. 

Based on those numbers, a 300-unit reservoir would meet the needs of 64% of adults for 72-hour wear, while a 200-unit reservoir would meet the needs of just 38% of that group. 

“With the option of a larger insulin reservoir size, people with [Type] 2 diabetes who are currently using approximately the mean dose of daily insulin may consider transitioning from MDI to a patch pump without the cost and inconvenience of changing the disposable pump every day or two,” wrote Eugene Wright, medical director of South Piedmont Area Health Education Center and co-author of the paper.  

Embecta submitted an open-loop version of the patch pump to the FDA in late 2023, but it is also working on a closed-loop version that would work with interoperable insulin-dosing app Tidepool. That work includes considering how Tidepool’s algorithm would need to be adapted for people with Type 2 diabetes, CEO Dev Kurdikar said in a May earnings call. 

Embecta has not said when it expects to begin sales of the device.