DexCom to Collaborate With the Life Sciences Team at Google

PR Newswire

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ – DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM), a leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people with diabetes, announced today that is has entered into an agreement with the life sciences team at Google to jointly develop a series of next-generation CGM products that are designed to be smaller and less expensive than existing technologies. These new products will incorporate Google’s miniaturized electronics platform with DexCom’s best-in-class sensor technology. This collaboration also provides an opportunity to better utilize the data generated by these CGM products to significantly improve the outcomes and reduce the costs associated with diabetes care.

“This partnership has the potential to change the face of diabetes technology forever,” said Kevin Sayer, President and Chief Executive Officer of DexCom. “Working together, we believe we can introduce products that will move us beyond our core Type 1 business to become the standard of care for all people living with diabetes.”

“We’re committed to developing new technologies that will help move health care from reactive to proactive,” said Andrew Conrad, head of the life sciences team at Google. “This collaboration is another step towards expanding monitoring options and making it easier for people with diabetes to proactively manage their health.”

Initial products to be developed under the agreement will focus on minimizing both the cost and size of CGM body worn components. The products will be designed to be disposable, and will be intended for use across all diabetes markets. The goal is to empower more people to control their diabetes with real-time and actionable information by developing a low-cost, small, bandage-sized sensor that is connected to the cloud. By addressing these needs, we believe we will have the platform that can replace finger sticks and become the standard of care.

DexCom retains all sales and distribution rights of the products developed under this agreement. DexCom is also obligated to pay an initial upfront payment and milestone payments during development, and revenue-based royalties once these products are launched and have achieved a certain level of revenue.

Management will hold a conference call to review this agreement starting at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, August 11, 2015. The conference call will be concurrently webcast. The link to the webcast will be available on the DexCom website at www.dexcom.com by navigating to “Our Company,” then “Investor Relations,” and then “Events and Webcasts,” and will be archived there for future reference.

To listen to the conference call, please dial (866) 352-2112 (US/Canada) or (630) 691-2779 (International) and use the confirmation number 9526250 approximately five minutes prior to the start time.

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I wonder if Dexcom will be aiming at something like Abbott’s FeeStyle Libre flash glucose monitor system.

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Google has been trying to recruit my husband for a couple of years… I told him today to go ahead if they will put him on this team :stuck_out_tongue:

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This sounds interesting. I’m still dubious that it will be good enough to eliminate finger sticks. I also don’t want to rely on the “cloud” to get my glucose readings so I hope it won’t be the case :laughing:

I’m really hoping for a sensor that can stay under the skin for a longer period too and a water proof receiver.

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This is great news for us. I am envisioning that what they are planning is a small sensor which includes the transmitter all in one piece. And by reducing the size, the battery will also be reduced. But if they lower the cost (which the article states) then I think this would be something that you throw out every week. So, it will be a very small sensor and transmitter single unit, which should cut down on production costs since its now one device. You just swap it out every 7 days or so. The sensor technology is still owned by Dexcom, but the circuits/chips will be supplied/designed by Google. Also, Google will handle the cloud technology. This will allow Dexcom to focus on its strongest technology - the sensor.

Great news for us!

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I guess Dexcom sees a lot of value in miniaturization. I guess this could translate to cheaper cost if the re-design has fewer or cheaper parts and is cheaper to manufacture. The other surprising news from Dexcom is their goal to replace fingersticks. Most improvement in accuracy appears to be coming from improving the software algorithms versus the actual sensor (???). There is a surprising amount of room for improvement in the algorithms, I guess. In any case, I love Dexcom for constantly improving and launching updated systems.

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