MiniMed, the diabetes technology company spun off from Medtronic in March, used its first earnings call as a publicly traded firm to announce an expanded partnership with Abbott Laboratories. The companies will collaborate on dual glucose-ketone sensors designed to integrate with MiniMed’s smart dosing systems, building on an existing collaboration that produced the Abbott-made Instinct continuous glucose monitor exclusively for MiniMed.
The announcement came as MiniMed reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $837 million, a 16 percent increase year over year, alongside a net loss of $183 million compared with $168 million in the year-ago period. CEO Que Dallara outlined an ambitious product pipeline intended to transform the company’s portfolio following its separation from Medtronic.
Abbott received Europe’s CE mark for a dual glucose-ketone sensor last week, though the device has not yet received FDA clearance. The collaboration with MiniMed aims to develop sensors that can simultaneously monitor glucose and ketone levels and feed that data into MiniMed’s automated insulin delivery systems, potentially improving safety for people with diabetes at risk of diabetic ketoacidosis.
MiniMed also provided updates on multiple new products. The MiniMed Flex, a smaller durable insulin pump that received FDA clearance in March, is scheduled to launch later this month. The company recently began U.S. sales of MiniMed Go, a system combining a smart insulin pen with a glucose sensor for patients using multiple daily injections.
Looking ahead, MiniMed expects to submit its first insulin patch pump to the FDA this fall, with a commercial launch planned for next year. The device would compete with Insulet, which dominates the patch-pump market. MiniMed is also developing Vivera, an automated insulin delivery algorithm that would eliminate the need for meal announcements or carbohydrate counting — a significant reduction in user burden if successful.
MiniMed went public in March for $560 million. The company’s product expansion strategy reflects the competitive intensity of the diabetes technology market, where multiple firms are racing to develop fully automated insulin delivery systems.
Sources: MedTech Dive, MiniMed Newsroom
