Novo Nordisk and Medtronic to integrate diabetes technology

Novo Nordisk has teamed up with Medtronic to provide integrated digital solutions for people with diabetes, allowing dosing data from the Danish pharma’s insulin pens to be shared with the US firm’s glucose monitoring devices.

The two companies hope that by integrating glucose monitoring and insulin dosing data, people with diabetes, healthcare professionals and caregivers will find managing the condition less of a burden.

Being able to view both glucose and insulin data together can help doctors and patients make more informed decisions on how to better manage glucose levels and increase Time in Range – the percentage of time people with the disease spend in the optimal glycaemic range.

Novo Nordisk is gearing up to launch “smart” insulin pens, NovoPen 6 and NovoPen Echo Plus, as well as a disposable, pre-filled injection solution next year.

These pens will be compatible with both Android and iOS devices, and Medtronic’s Guardian Connect system will be updated to integrate data from these smart pens.

Guardian Connect is a continuous glucose management (CGM) system that sends predictive alerts up to 60 minutes before blood sugar levels fall.

This allows people to proactively manage their diabetes, and with a patient’s permission healthcare providers may access the data to help with therapy decisions, and to improve communication.

Camilla Sylvest, executive vice president, commercial strategy and corporate affairs at Novo Nordisk, said: “Millions of people living with diabetes work to control their sugar levels and track their insulin injections every day. To help ease the hassle of diabetes management, we are excited to be partnering with Medtronic, the largest medical device company in the world.

“We now collaborate with all major CGM device producers, which means we can bring the benefits of smart insulin pens to even more people.”

Alejandro Galindo, president of the Advanced Insulin Management division within the Diabetes Group at Medtronic, said: “We see incredible power in combining a variety of data points to drive insights that help people living with diabetes make more informed decisions around managing their glucose levels.”