Medtronic adds Qualcomm to its growing diabetes partner list

Medtronic has notched another strategic partnership with a technology company in its long-running effort to build better machines to manage the burden of diabetes.

The Minnesota-run medical device maker on Wednesday announced a joint effort with digital communications company Qualcomm to develop new devices that can detect and transmit patients' blood glucose levels in near real time.

The single-use continuous glucose monitors (CGM) will be intended to work for three days, during which time they will read blood numbers every five minutes and transmit the results. Although Medtronic's existing glucose monitors are used extensively by people with severe Type 1 diabetes, the collaboration with Qualcomm will focus on bringing CGM technology affordably to the Type 2 diabetes community.

"This collaboration furthers our commitment of enabling new connected care models that liberate vital data and unlock insights to deliver intelligent care wherever the patient may be," said Rick Valencia, president of Qualcomm Life, in a news release.

The news comes five months after Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak appeared on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to announce the upcoming launch of an app that will use the capabilities of IBM's Watson Health unit to analyze a person's past health trends and predict diabetic episodes with enough lead warning to avert an emergency.

Diabetes is an increasingly common disease in which people's bodies can't use insulin to absorb sugar (glucose) from the blood, prompting a need for frequent glucose checks and, in some cases, insulin injections. Type 1, often diagnosed in childhood, happens when the body's immune system attacks the cells that produce natural insulin. Type 2, the far more common variety, happens when the body becomes immune to its natural insulin.

Medtronic's Diabetes Group grew 6 percent to $1.8 billion in revenue in the year ended April 2015, company filings say.

Ishrak, in his Jan. 6 Las Vegas remarks, noted that 400 million people worldwide are affected by diabetes, and their hospital care costs about $600 billion a year globally.

"It's a very big disease that affects a lot of people, costs a lot of money," he said, later adding, "It's an area which, if we can make a difference, we'll have a big impact in health care."

Medtronic isn't planning to make that impact on its own.

A year ago at the annual American Diabetes Association meeting, the company announced a strategic partnership with smartphone maker Samsung Electronics to develop ways for patients to conveniently and discreetly look at their diabetes data, including a mobile app to view data from insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors.

In the past two years, Medtronic has also announced technology partnerships with diabetes data firm Glooko, insulin infusion-set maker Becton, Dickinson & Co., and insulin maker Sanofi.

And in January it announced a long-term collaboration with the municipal government of Chengdu, China, to increase access to a locally produced, sensor-enabled insulin pump with a Chinese language-enabled software display.

Medtronic is also working with insurers. In 2014 it launched a pilot program with Aetna to provide Medtronic insulin pumps and diabetes education to patients in an effort to see if their overall costs of care would decline.

Earlier this month Medtronic drew strong reactions from some in the diabetes community when UnitedHealth Group announced a collaboration in which Medtronic had been selected as the "preferred provider" for insulin pumps for patients over age 18. The change could eventually prompt thousands of UnitedHealthcare Commercial and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan (Medicaid) members to switch to Medtronic pumps.

"UnitedHealthcare and Medtronic are working together to make a widely used and effective product available to our members while pursuing new ways to lower the overall cost of living with diabetes," the Minnetonka-based for-profit insurer said in an online fact sheet about the decision, adding that the "vast majority" of its members who need an insulin pump already use a Medtronic model.

Joe Carlson • 612-673-4779