Dexcom has announced an enormous step in its campaign to bring continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology to everyone with diabetes. Next 12 months, the business will release a brand new sensor designed for individuals with type 2 diabetes who don’t require insulin.
The brand new Dexcom product, which doesn’t yet have a reputation, may have the identical physical sensor as the brand new Dexcom G7, but with a brand new streamlined app and recent features. It’ll also lack among the original model’s features that were designed for insulin users with type 1 and sort 2 diabetes. Each sensor may have a 15-day life, and Dexcom will provide a brand new cash-pay option for patients who cannot access the device through their insurance.
Jake Leach, Dexcom’s executive vp and chief operating officer, chatted with Diabetes Day by day and previewed the product for us.
Recent Features
The brand new product won’t be physically different — it’s the identical sensor because the G7. Leach emphasized that the brand new product maintains the identical high standards for “performance, accuracy, and reliability,” even when users that don’t require intensive insulin management might sound to have a less serious need for pinpoint accuracy: “We do feel just like the performance of the sensor is basically essential.”
The key differences will include the redesigned app. The present G7 app has many features which might be likely of little interest to patients who don’t require insulin, including alarms for low glucose levels and Follow, which lets relations or friends observe the user’s blood sugar measurements remotely.
Although Leach didn’t offer too many details, he hinted that the brand new app can be more engaging than the present G7 app:
“It’s really focused on giving feedback and insights around how food regimen, activity, sleep, and stress impact glucose. The app gives users insights in order that they will make decisions which might be right for them. It helps people get essentially the most out of their CGM.”
“It’s a novel software experience,” Leach said, “uniquely designed for users that will not be managing their diabetes with insulin.”
The Value of CGM Data in People Who Don’t Use Insulin
There are about 28 million Americans with diabetes who don’t use insulin, and a few experts have expressed doubt that they really require CGM technology. Patients that don’t use insulin, generally speaking, don’t need to envision their blood sugar measurements all that incessantly, in keeping with authorities just like the American Diabetes Association, especially in the event that they are doing a great job of meeting the blood sugar targets set by their clinicians.
Until recently, using CGM technology was mostly limited to individuals with type 1 diabetes, who greatly profit from considered one of the device’s most pivotal functions: a blaring alarm to warn users of dangerous hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Previously several years, insurers have develop into more desperate to cover the fee of CGMs for individuals with type 2 diabetes that use insulin, who even have a lesser but still substantial risk of hypoglycemia. Most recently, Medicare announced that it will cover CGMs for individuals with type 2 who use only basal insulin, and personal insurers are rapidly following the federal government’s lead.
Coverage for individuals with type 2 diabetes that don’t use insulin in any respect, nevertheless, stays rare.
Leach contends that CGM technology can still be incredibly worthwhile for such patients, because of the insights it provides:
“The No. 1 thing that they’re learning is how various factors resembling medication, sleep, physical activity, and (most significantly) food regimen impact their glucose control.”
“The product is designed to present people the insights they need in order that they could make the selections which might be right for them and help them recuperate glucose control and higher control of their diabetes.”
Scientists affiliated with Dexcom recently presented data from a real-world study of adults with type 2 who didn’t require insulin. Over the course of three months with the G6 CGM, study participants:
- Improved their time-in-range from about 40 percent to about 56 percent
- Improved their glucose management indicator (GMI), an estimate of A1C, from 8.2 percent to 7.7 percent
- Improved their mean glucose level from 203 mg/dL to 182 mg/dL
Dexcom has also supported the work of Thomas Grace, MD, who found much more impressive results when he helped distribute CGMs to real patients in his community.
Insurance Coverage and the Money-Pay Option
More robust experiments and studies, nevertheless, can be needed to persuade insurers.
Leach says that CGM advocates have to prove that the technology results in positive “clinical and economic outcomes” in individuals with type 2 diabetes that don’t use insulin. In other words, CGMs have to make people healthier and save insurers money. Though the technology might be expensive, if CGMs can delay and even eliminate the necessity for costlier medications or other costly interventions by improving blood sugar control, they may pay for themselves.
Within the meantime, Dexcom will debut a cash-pay option, allowing customers to pay out of pocket without having to undergo their insurance.
“We would like this to be as approachable and accessible as possible,” Leach says.
It is feasible to purchase G7 sensors today without using medical insurance — today, a 30-day supply cost $377 on Amazon’s online pharmacy — an option that it seems relatively few customers use. Leach didn’t offer any numbers, but suggested that the brand new Dexcom product for users without insulin can be cheaper.
Leach also understands that folks without diabetes may be fascinated about purchasing the brand new sensors:
“We actually imagine in the advantages of CGM to a broad population, even beyond diabetes. Glucose control is considered one of the leading indicators of metabolic health and a extremely essential aspect of overall health.”
Leach says that the brand new Dexcom product can be released sooner or later in 2024.