I just returned from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting in San Diego. Lots of interesting material, and I am still digesting most of the clinical presentations that I attended On the exhibit floor, and of particular interest to this group, was the fact that ,as noted previously, the new Gen 4 probe from Dexcom is now approved in the EU. Both Dexcom and Animas were showing the new Vibe pump. It is essentially an upgraded Ping with a color screen and with the Dexcom CGMS fully integrated. I had an opportunity to play with it, and compared it to my Ping. The Vibe was significantly faster than the Ping when I scrolled up a 10 unit bolus, so once available, it should actually work better and not just look better.
The Vibe has been approved in the UK, but has not yet been launched there. It has not been filed to the FDA yet, and the most that I could learn is that some of the booth staff were hoping for a filing before the end of the year. It was quite apparent, however, that this was purely aspirational on the part of those people I spoke with. Animas has no official projection as to when it will be filed. One should not expect to have the Vibe approved in the US for at least 18 months (my personal best estimate). I also got a chance to see the new Ping 1.5 meter that is available in Canada – this is the one with the nice color screen.
I spoke to the Animas people about the pilot testing of the new pump clip. I was told that somewhat fewer than 100 people were asked to test the new clip. Many of the booth staff had not seen one and were quite curious to examine the one I have been wearing. Again, there is no certainty, but I got the impression that their hope was to have the new clip available before the end of the year. Of course, this might depend on the feedback that Animas receives from those actually testing it out in the real world.
Any clue at all when that nice color screen meter is coming to the US?
That would be worth holding out on a new pump, if you were not interested in the Vibe.
Thanks for the info! So the Vibe is integrated with the Dexcom! I can’t wait to have it all in one piece…have a great holiday weekend.
Is the Vibe bigger than the Ping or the same size? I can’t wait !
It is the same size. There is an additional CGMS menu, and it seemed to respond more quickly.
Did it have the pings meter/remote?
I did not see the remote meter, so I cannot answer your question. More information is available at www.animascorp.co.uk/animasVibe. One of the nice things about the pump is that on the color screen, the CGM data are coded so that highs appear in red, within target appears in green, and lows appear in a different color (I think it was blue)
It’s not supposed to have one.
Supposedly there would be too much going on, and something had to go so the remote went.
I’ll certainly be sad that we won’t have the remote anymore. That was one of the selling points for me when I bought my Ping.
I’m pretty sure that word has it it just wont fit in with the CGMS…something about the radio frquencies or whatever the technical issue would be?
It may also have something to do with the fact that the wireless remote was not available in the EU even before the Vibe was approved. Things may be different when the product is filed and ultimately aproved in the US.