Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight -September/October 2009
Diabetes is one of the top medical priorities in the world, and government and health care professionals are focused on finding therapies and technologies to battle the condition. Those efforts, plus the accompanying realization that treating diabetes is one of the best ways to reduce costs in overburdened health care systems, have created a very receptive market for new drugs and devices that can help achieve this goal. Read more...
Device Opportunities in the Diabetes Treatment Market
Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight -September/October 2009
Concern about the escalating prevalence of diabetes continues to make the disease one of the top medical priorities in the world as governments and health care professionals seek the best therapies and technologies to battle the condition. These efforts, and the accompanying realization that effectively treating diabetes is one of the best ways to reduce costs in an overburdened health care system, have created a very receptive market for new drugs and devices that can help achieve this goal. In many ways, it is a perfect storm for innovation, and that dynamic may be growing even stronger as the focus on early intervention intensifies.
Patients with type 1 diabetes—or juvenile diabetes as it was more commonly referred to in the past—have been the focal point of a large amount of the research to date because this form of the disease generally hits patients early in life and can be much more serious and life threatening in the short term. However, the industry as a whole has long recognized that type 2 diabetes accounts for the vast majority of patients, and manufacturers are intensifying their efforts to reach more of those patients, with the aim of helping them avoid the numerous serious long-term complications that accompany the disease.
Numbers and Treatment Costs Continue to Grow
Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90% to 95% of the total diabetic population, estimated at nearly 24 million in the US and 246 million worldwide. While type 2 diabetes has traditionally been recognized as a problem primarily of middle aged and older adults, the disease, which is linked to weight gain and obesity, is now being diagnosed more frequently in overweight children and teens. Researchers estimate that as many as 80% of all type 2 diabetes cases could be prevented with proper diet, increased physical activity, and improved living environments. Considering that diabetes already is the single most expensive chronic disease in the US, the rising number of patients makes an already expensive problem even worse.
For reasons that still are not completely clear, diabetes has wide-ranging deleterious effects on the vascular system, and chronic, uncontrolled high blood sugar levels can lead to serious long-term complications, ranging from peripheral vascular disease and nonhealing wounds to blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. According to the International Diabetes Federation, people with type 2 diabetes will die five to 10 years earlier than people without diabetes. Type 2 diabetics are more than two times as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke as nondiabetics, and the Federation notes that type 2 diabetics have approximately the same odds of having a heart attack as nondiabetics who have previously had a heart attack.
by Robert Neil
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Companies mentioned in this article:
Abbott Laboratories Inc.
Bayer AG
Bayer Corp.
Bayer HealthCare LLC
Bayer Diabetes Care
Dexcom Inc.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Eli Lilly & Co.
Elron Electronic Industries Ltd.
Generex Biotechnology Corp.
Insulet Corp.
Johnson & Johnson
LifeScan Inc.
MannKind Corp.
Medingo Ltd.
Medtronic Inc.
Medtronic MiniMed Inc.
PreciSense AS
Novo Nordisk AS
Novo Nordisk Inc.
Pfizer Inc.
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Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices (cardiothoracic &
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