After diabetes technology companies had success last year despite the economic volatility amid the coronavirus pandemic, Wall Street forecast 2021 to be a watershed for the market.

Dexcom, Insulet and Tandem Diabetes Care are seeing accelerated demand as the effects of the pandemic drove patients to more tech-based services like telehealth and wearables. Abbott Laboratories is seeing its diabetes business grow and Medtronic changed strategies in how it would approach the space.

Analysts have been bullish on the market as companies target new patient populations and with major product launches planned for 2021, and clinicians seem to agree. Recent surveys of healthcare professionals projecting both the use of continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps to jump in the coming years.

While CGMs and insulin pumps are the primary devices in diabetes tech, the space is also seeing a recent activity among smart insulin pen developers. Bigfoot Biomedical, which is partnered with Abbott, received FDA 510(k) clearance for its smart insulin pen system in May and is now competing with giant Medtronic. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly is developing a smart insulin pen system of their own.

With the stage set, most companies met or topped Wall Street forecasts in the first quarter of 2021, and trial results at both the Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes and American Diabetes Association annual conferences added fuel to the intensifying market competition.

Below is a compendium of MedTech Dive’s coverage of the diabetes tech market in 2021: