Diabetes received significant attention at Medtronic's analyst day today, where even the giveaway toys were Minimed (now called Medtronic Diabetes Care) travel clocks!
Clearly, more time and energy is being poured into diabetes. As we've been pointing out this year, Medtronic is clearly pouring more money into the R&D side, now with the STAR trial. Management discussed three separate trials, in fact, and the last part is the best - a randomized, controlled trial comparing the 522 sensor-automated pump versus MDI - multiple daily injections with Lantus and rapid acting analogs. We'll look forward to learning more on this front - this comparison is a tough one, but we believe it'll be a hands-down winner for the sensor-augmented pump, as patients' excursions will be fewer and further between and of shorter duration.
Service is an area where Medtronic has received criticism in the past, but we sense it is improving on this front, as complaints (speaking of fewer and further between) have been scarcer. Management emphasized how much service cost and we know they have more money to pour into this area - and education! and reimbursement! than many of its competitors in the area.
In general, we walked away feeling that continuous monitoring was more difficult than previously thought but that Medtronic was even more devoted to it than previously believed.
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