News from the Dexcom Q2 2019 conference call

The Q2 2019 Dexcom conference call was held on July 31, 2019, and a transcript is available at https://seekingalpha.com/article/4279982-dexcom-inc-dxcm-ceo-kevin-sayer-q2-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript

They are catching up with the business strains caused by the rapid transition to the G6. They are happy with the Dexcom Philippines customer support but they are rather dissatisfied with the outsourced customer support and they’re working hard to fix that. They are already preparing for the G7 launch in an effort to avoid the issues that have been experienced with the rapid transition from G5 to G6.

They expect to expand the availability of the G6 to Canada and to US Medicare patients in the second half of 2019.

They continue to push the transition from sales via the Durable Medical Equipment channel to sales via the pharmacy channel. This takes out many layers of overhead, time delays, and sales costs. There was no discussion of the impact this transition could have on those who are covered by drug insurance that has a “donut hole” in reimbursement, but it sounds like the DME channel will continue to be available, just de-emphasized.

They anticipate that CGM will become the standard of care for all insulin users, not just Type 1s, and not just pumpers.

They anticipate a limited release of the smaller 1-piece disposable G7 in late 2020, with the broad roll-out in 2021, and G7 becomes their principal product by the end of 2021, although the G6 will still be available. They are preparing for a trend of decreasing annual revenue per patient.

It appears that the new “cost-reduced” G6 transmitter will become available in the second half of the year, but not widely available until the 4th quarter. The new transmitter will enable CGM direct to the Apple Watch, and may have a slightly better broadcast range.

They mentioned that even a short-term use of the G6 by Type 2 diabetics gives better BG improvements than any drug therapy. They are sharing these results with insurance companies to try to get CGM coverage for T2 patients.

On our FUDiabetes forum I’ve seen multiple threads about G6 sensors failing early or showing great inaccuracy. Evidently these kinds of issues are not widely known, because there was absolutely no comment or question or even vague allusion to anything along those lines from the analysts or the company representatives.

5 Likes