Some shake-ups happening in diabetes tech land. Medtronic is going to separate its diabetes division into a separate business.
And just recently Ypsomed sold their diabetes division to TecMed:
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“New Diabetes Company”? Did someone forget to edit the placeholder before they filed the paperwork and did the press release? I realize that we’re drowning in stupidly named companies and apps, but that’s the least effort I’ve seen in a corporate rebranding.
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The name “New Diabetes Company” polled really well with our target demographic…
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I found that quite baffling too
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@needlesandmath I’m pretty sure you’re right, they had focus group of 4, the vote was a tie, they ran out of time, and stuck with what they had on paper: “We need a name for this “New Diabetes Company”. Alternately, perhaps it sounds a bit better in Swedish?!
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They haven’t yet decided on the name. This is what the finance folks at Medtronic called it when they did all their modeling. I worked for a Chrysler spinoff called “Newco” - for “New Company”.
Thanks @Boerenkool for posting this - it reveals something about the economics of the insulin pump business - ie that Medtronic (the market leader) can’t make money there (anymore) - at least to the level that it needs to keep its investors happy. So they spin it out - good luck New Diabetes Company! We don’t want to deal with you any more.
What does this mean for other companies like Insulet or Tandem (where I am a patient stockholder)? I’d say it’s very good news initially - but might be more problematic in a couple of years.
Good news now - who wants to buy Medtronic pumps when they will soon be serviced by a “New Diabetes Company?”. So there will be more demand for Tandem and Insulet.
In a couple of years - If it’s set up right, I’d be betting on pumps from “New Diabetes Company” – this might be a classic case of Clayton Christensen’s “creosote bush”, where the dominant business strangles anything new. And in that case, the right answer is to spin out the new stuff.
Then again, it could just represent some bad decisions on the part of Medtronic management.
Does anyone have recent experience with Medtronic pumps? I use a Tandem and I hear a lot about Omnipod, but not so much about Medtronic …
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@daisymae uses Medtronic.
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DM Here. I’ve been using Medtronic for over 25 years now. In the beginning they were simplistic and user-friendly for the beginner.
Then they became more advanced. Then, out came The Paradigm and i was in Nirvana I used this odel for12 years. Then mine broke, and i was still under warranty and the Paradigm was discontinued to Medtronic had to replace my pump with the latest model. (MiniMed 770G) Its awful!!! And I want to switch over to the Tandem, but i am still stuck in my warrenty for another 9 months (Medicare). This is the worst pump ever. It has too many useless screens. Its a challenge to get to the screen that you are looking for. Everything takes a lot of button pushing. When I asked Medtronic why they did this, the only reply i got was that it was for “safety measures.” (apparently people were delivering insulin boluses by mistake on the other models.) Oh! Come On. Give me a break. I have been counting the days till my warrenty is over.
BTW, Any Tandem users out there? I could use some input. I am thinking seriously about switching to a closed loop system. Ive never done it before but am eager to try it. I have one friend who loves the closed top, but thats all I have to go on. Please please chime in!!!
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@Boerenkool you inspired me to do a substack post on this! Here’s a link …
what do you think – good or bad for “New Diabetes Company?”??
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You raise an interesting question. Time will tell if this is the right move for “NDC”. I’m still one of the few Medtronic users (780G pump).
Unrelated to this topic, but I liked your substack post about St Maarten too. People in the Netherlands are actually largely unaware of the circumstances on the island.
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Why not just call it minimed.
Hopefully this unleashes a lot of innovative product advancements without the massive overhead and governance of Medtronic corp.
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The first I heard of Medtronic’s was a program I used to monitor and maintain huge telco central office battery strings. Then my wife got a Medtronic pacemaker. Then I started looking into insulin pumps.
Looking at their catalog they are only medical products. Weird🧐
Edit- this is severely off topic but I always thought it odd that a medical equipment company would have an interest in giant calcium/lead acid battery cells.
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