Dexcom stock slumped Wednesday on a Bloomberg News report that Apple is progressing on its work to add a blood glucose monitor to its market-dominating Apple Watch.
Allison Gatlin for Investor’s Business Daily:
The move would rival Dexcom’s line of body-worn continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs. These devices help people with diabetes keep tabs on their blood sugar in real time. The device requires a small needle that sits just under the skin.
Apple’s approach, on the other hand, would use a noninvasive approach, according to Bloomberg. The company is reportedly testing a system that uses lasers to look below the skin for substances that can be absorbed by glucose. An algorithm then determines the blood glucose level.
Apple’s development of a glucose monitor remains in its early stages. But it’s a lucrative market. Last year, Dexcom had more than $2.9 billion in sales. This year, the company expects $3.35 billion to $3.49 billion in sales.
The market also is growing. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show more than 11% of the U.S. population has diabetes. Almost four in 10 adults in the U.S. have prediabetes, a state in which blood sugars are higher than normal, but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
MacDailyNews Take: If and when Apple succeeds, Dexcom will be the Research In Motion of that decade.
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I use the Dexcom G6, which is linked to my phone, which is linked to my watch. Glucose display as a complication on the watch face. Given that it’s 300 bucks a month for the sensors, won’t take long til the watch is effectively ‘free’! I’ll be first in line!
I use a Dexcom G6 linked to my insulin pump and my phone. The pumps acts semi automatically raising and lowering the insulin it pumps based on the data it receives from the Dexcom. It would take several years to get the pump companies to switch from Dexcom to Apple and to get FDA approval to switch