Article preview reprinted from Start Up - August/September 2009
In the past, it has been challenging for developers of non-invasive glucose monitoring systems based on optical platforms to separate out the signal generated by glucose from a high level of background "noise." Freedom Meditech, which uses a beam of red light to detect the concentration of glucose in the eye, believes it overcomes this problem and expects to sell its devices directly to consumers and through traditional diabetes product distribution channels. The company is also in the final stages of development with an in-office diabetes screening system that employs similar technology to identify individuals who may have undiagnosed diabetes or pre-diabetes. Read more...
Freedom Meditech Inc.
Article preview reprinted from Start Up - August/September 2009
A compact handheld ophthalmic device currently in early clinical development may eventually prove a welcome alternative to the pain and inconvenience of traditional finger-stick methods for monitoring blood glucose in patients with diabetes. The noninvasive glucose monitoring device being developed by Freedom Meditech Inc. of Cleveland, OH, and San Diego, CA, uses a beam of red light to detect the concentration of glucose in the eye and is expected to be sold directly to consumers and through traditional diabetes product distribution channels. The company is also in the final stages of development with an in-office diabetes screening system that employs similar technology to identify individuals who may have undiagnosed diabetes or pre-diabetes.
"Glucose monitoring development in the optical field has always been a challenge because platforms pursued have traditionally generated a large amount of noise relative to the signal generated from glucose," says Craig Misrach, president and CEO of Freedom Meditech. Such noise prevents accuracy and repeatability and can potentially impact specificity as well, he says. However, in vivo data collected so far on Freedom Meditech's system suggest that it may overcome this problem and enable the commercialization of an accurate, convenient, and pain-free noninvasive glucose measurement device.
Every year, nearly 800,000 people in the US alone are diagnosed with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The glucose monitoring market is more than a $10 billion global market, Misrach says. He pegs the potential of Freedom Meditech's in-office screening system at over $1 billion worldwide.
Prior to founding Freedom Meditech in December 2006, Misrach was president and COO at EyeChem, a diabetes medical-device company focused on the commercialization of an eye-related glucose measurement and monitoring system. "Diabetes is a global epidemic," he states. "Pricking your finger is clearly an archaic method of glucose measurement in comparison to the evolution of bioengineering technologies and medical device product development over the past 10 to 15 years."
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Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
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