Global Healthcare companies Abbott and Novo Nordisk have entered into a partnership, to provide integrated digital solutions to people with diabetes. The collaboration will enable insulin data to be shared between Novo Nordisk connected insulin pens and digital health tools compatible with Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre portfolio of products.

Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre is a personal continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2017. The system reads glucose levels through a sensor that can be worn on the back of the upper arm eliminating the need for routine finger pricks, enabling users to capture and view their real-time glucose levels, their eight-hour glucose history, and how their glucose is currently changing right on their smartphones.

Novo Nordisk’s pens are pre-filled devices intended for insulin delivery. The company’s portfolio includes a variety of such insulin pens, including NovoPen 5 and NovoPen Echo.

According to Abbott, sending dosing data to a digital tracking platform will save users the hassle of logging insulin intake every time. While insulin delivery via pump is a popular choice, the partnership could capture a part of the population of diabetics who use insulin pens. Ultimately, Novo Nordisk also plans to market the pens to more than 50 countries. Thus, this partnership will bring unmatched benefits for Diabetes patients globally.

The non-exclusive partnership will integrate insulin dose data from Novo Nordisk’s pre-filled and durable connected pens directly into the digital health tools compatible with Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre system. Integrating these two products will thus enable healthcare professionals, caregivers and people with diabetes to view glucose and insulin data together to help them make more informed treatment decisions and to have a more meaningful and productive conversation about health outcomes.

The partnership reflects both companies’ commitment to make diabetes management easier by connecting key technologies such as continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and connected insulin pens. Anders Dyhr Toft, Corporate Vice President – Commercial Innovation, Novo Nordisk: « Together with partners like Abbott, our connected pens will give healthcare professionals a better understanding of a patient’s individual diabetes management and can help people with diabetes feel more confident in their treatment. » Jared Watkin, Senior Vice President – Diabetes Care with Abbott remarked, « Diabetes is a time-intensive condition to manage. People with diabetes must make a variety of decisions every single day about their glucose monitoring, nutrition, insulin and medication intake. By enabling insulin dosing data from Novo Nordisk’s connected pens to be shared with our digital health tools, we’ll be able to help further eliminate those daily hassles for people, so they have more time to live a fuller, healthier life. »

Abbott and Novo Nordisk are working hard to bring these integrated solutions to patients as soon as possible.

References:

• Abbott and Novo Nordisk strike diabetes digital solution deal, February 2019, PharmaTimes
• Abbott and Novo Nordisk enter partnership to provide integrated digital solution to people with diabetes using insulin, February 2019, PharmaNews.eu
• Abbott and Novo Nordisk plan to link diabetes devices, February 2019, MedtechDive
• Abbott and Novo Nordisk to offer integrated solution for diabetes, February 2019, Verdict Medical Device