People have been riding the GLP-1 wave to achieve rapid and significant weight loss. But given the drug effect in controller type 2 diabetesIt’s no surprise that DexCom CEO Jake Leach also wants to ride that wave. DexCom makes continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices that patients wear 24/7. They were initially used for the type 1 diabetes population who needed them to know when to take insulin and manage their disease, but as evidence of their effectiveness has grown, CGMs are now also prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes.
“So we’ve been in this business of how we use CGMs to optimize pharmaceutical therapies, insulin being the first one, [but] “There are opportunities with LPG-1s,” Leach said in a recent interview. “There are all kinds of opportunities for us to guide the therapy so that both the doctor and the patient work together to get a better result faster.”
CGMs give diabetics an estimate of their glucose levels by measuring glucose in the interstitial fluid surrounding the cells. Blood tests provide A1c results that are considered a better metric, but the constant sticking and drawing of blood is burdensome to say the least. It is also not possible to constantly make digital punctures to obtain data in real time. The CGMs that providers must prescribe have a small sensor that is inserted under the skin to provide an accurate sense of glucose levels throughout the day.
Like obesity, type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease and GLP-1 is effective in suppressing appetite, which affects metabolism and insulin levels.
“LPG-1 generates excellent results. But I feel and have seen in all the data we look at that when you use CGM and GLP-1 together, you get a better result [mainly because] they work on different things,” Leach said. “CGM works to understand how different nutrition and different diet choices, activity levels, all those things, how they actually impact your glucose. “If you are taking a GLP-1, the CGM will show you how much better you do when you take it.”
Whereas if you only take GLP-1 and don’t monitor glucose levels, “the only real information you have about how you’re doing is your weight” and that impact could take up to 90 days when you measure your A1c, Leach said.
CGMs can also help adapt the diet.
“I think some of the very important learnings about proper nutrition come not from a GLP-1, but from a CGM,” he said, although he could not say how large the universe of type 2 diabetes patients with GLP-1 is.
Leach also noted that using CGM along with GLP-1 in people struggling with type 2 diabetes is also economically viable.
“I think CGM is a very cost-effective solution,” he said. “When you think about the cost of CGM, for someone to use CGM for a year, we’re talking about $1,000, right? That’s a pretty compelling financial argument when you look at the health care savings.”
Indeed, a study to determine whether the use of CGM for patients with GLP-1 is cost-effective for payers appears to echo Leach. That study was conducted by an Abbott consulting physician and two of its employees. Abbott is a competitor of DexCom and has its own CGM product, the FreeStyle Libre. Although Abbott’s technology differs from DexCom’s (Kevin Sayer, DexCom’s former CEO, once described the FreeStyle Libre as not a true CGM), the product has been gaining market share.
To counter this and solidify Dexcom’s position as an innovative leader in the world of CGM, the San Diego-based company plans to launch the DexCom G8 sensor, which is expected to make DexCom’s latest handheld CGM device the world’s smallest CGM, when it becomes available.
“It will be the most advanced wearable system we have ever produced,” Leach said, according to a webcast of his remarks Jan. 12 at JP Morgan’s annual conference. “The design changes will ensure better detection and error detection. The sensor will also be 50% smaller than the G7 sensor, meaning the wearable device will be the smallest CGM available on the market when it is launched.”
A release date has not yet been specified.
Whatever the driver – expanding international sales, jumping on the GLP-1 bandwagon, or the launch of the smaller, more advanced CGM – DexCom and its stock price are in dire need of a winning story. He stock It peaked in November 2021 when it traded above $160. The market has since more than halved in value due to a variety of missteps, including a sales restructuring that didn’t go as planned and a warning letter from the FDA about the status of two manufacturing plants.
The stock is currently trading near $70. The markets will influence again on February 12 when company reports its fourth quarter and fiscal 2025 earnings.
