Diabetes devices makers Insulet (NSDQ:PODD) and DexCom Inc. (NSDQ:DXCM) agreed this week to deepen their partnership, sharing data between in order to support a "personal diabetes manager" (PDM) system currently in development by Insulet.
Under the new agreement DexCom agreed to share data from its 5th-generation continuous glucose monitors with Insulet’s pending wireless PDM technology, which would mean that patients can trade their separate CGM receivers for a mobile app that captures, stores and displays data.
"We are pleased to expand our development relationship with DexCom to receive and display DexCom G5 Sensor data on our new PDM, eliminating the need to carry a separate CGM receiver," Insulet president & CEO Duane DeSisto said in prepared remarks. "This collaboration furthers our shared vision of helping people living with diabetes by providing greater access to the data they need to make smart and effective decisions to better manage and control their disease."
The companies rekindled their partnership in June, saying that they’d join forces again after splitting ways in 2013. The device makers said at the time that they’d work together to integrate Insulet’s OmniPod insulin pump with DexCom’s mobile app platform, which is still under development. DexCom aims to produce the "1st version of a mobile app that is capable of incorporating glucose and other diabetes-related data from patients’ devices and displaying the integrated data via a smartphone app."
Last year Insulet and DexCom called it quits on a 5-year-old joint development deal that would have merged DexCom’s CGM technology with Insulet’s OmniPod insulin delivery system. Creative differences broke up the band, company officials told MassDevice.com at the time. Insulet wanted to focus on reducing the number of skin-worn devices where DexCom looked to reduce accompanying systems by shifting monitoring onto smartphones.