Dive Brief:

• Medtronic is set to acquire Israel’s Nutrino Health, a provider of nutrition data analytics, to bolster its diabetes group offerings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the companies.
• The medical device company intends to integrate Nutrino’s food analysis capabilities with its own devices for diabetes care to help patients better manage their condition. Nutrino’s services include artificial intelligence tools for personalized analysis of how nutritional intake will affect a person's health.
• Upon closing the transaction by end of Q3, Medtronic will gain Nutrino's food database, food analysis system and nutrition science expertise.

Dive Insight:

Medtronic is at the forefront of the industry for developing diabetes management technologies, having built the first FDA-approved hybrid closed loop system that continuously monitors blood sugar and administers insulin doses, known as the “artificial pancreas.”

With the Nutrino acquisition, Medtronic aims to help simplify food and nutrition management for diabetes patients. Nutrino has developed algorithms to predict glycemic responses to food. Medtronic is looking to integrate that technology with its continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and closed loop insulin delivery systems.

In Q2 earnings reported last week, diabetes group revenue jumped 26.2%, largely on sales of the MiniMed 670G hybrid closed loop insulin pump system and the Guardian Connect continuous glucose monitoring system.

Medtronic and Nutrino began working together in June 2016, and Nutrino played a role in recent U.S. product introductions from Medtronic, the companies said. Those include an updated iPro2 myLog app used with professional CGM devices and the Sugar.IQ diabetes assistant app used with the Guardian Connect smart CGM system.

The Sugar.IQ app uses IBM Watson analytics to find patterns in glucose data and offers real-time, personalized feedback based on a patient’s food intake insulin dosages, daily routines and other factors.

The iPro2 myLog app allows the physician to evaluate a patient’s meals based on the individual’s glucose reaction. Patients log activity and glucose readings, and take photos of each meal and snack to log their food intake. The platform generates a Pattern Snapshot that shows time in target glucose range, patterns of glucose variability and a graph of the full glucose tracing. A second report called the FoodPrint produces scores (A, B, C, D or F) for each meal based on the body's glucose reaction.

"Bringing Nutrino and their nutrition-related expertise into our organization will give us a substantial differentiator in the diabetes industry and accelerate our progress to help people with diabetes live with greater freedom and better health," said Hooman Hakami, president of the Diabetes Group at Medtronic.

The acquisition is expected to close in Medtronic's third fiscal quarter ending Jan. 25, 2019. The transaction is expected to be neutral to fiscal 2019 earnings per share.