If the CEO of Dexcom had a magic wand…
Dexcom's CEO has already created some magic for traders.
On Monday, the maker of steady glucose screens for folks battling diabetes introduced its preliminary fourth-quarter monetary outcomes, saying it expects to herald not less than $1.03 billion within the quarter ended December 31, up of 26% in comparison with the identical interval a yr in the past. .
However the firm's CEO – Kevin Sayer, a diabetic himself – isn't taking any victory laps. In an interview in San Francisco on the JP Morgan Healthcare Convention, Sayer stated there may be way more to attain. Chief amongst these is to make the corporate's glucose sensing capabilities extra shortly and extensively accessible to folks, together with kind 2 diabetes sufferers. Most sufferers who use steady glucose screens to raised management their blood glucose ranges are kind 1 diabetes sufferers who require insulin, however a much wider inhabitants of diabetics also can profit from Dexcom's units, in accordance with Sayer.
Dexcom has even developed a shopper system – referred to as Stelo – that it’ll market on to kind 2 diabetes sufferers who should not receiving insulin remedy. Dexcom has already submitted the appliance to the FDA and expects to launch it subsequent summer season.
Whereas he has management over some inside choices about merchandise and operations, in the case of the whims of the healthcare trade, Sayer would fortunately wield a magic wand to make his needs come true. And crucial factor is that his firm's units shortly attain those that want them.
“I feel it's nonetheless troublesome to get entry to merchandise for folks and to know how this entire system works. “I’d like to wave a magic wand and do this,” he stated.
However it's not nearly accessibility and lowering complexity in healthcare so that individuals can merely get the care they want, once they want it
Sayer desires to wave a magic wand to rework refund coverage.
“I'd like us to pay for it [preventive] medication as a substitute of taking good care of folks once they're sick,” Sayer stated.
He added that he believes the Dexcom G7 CGM would work very properly for pregnant girls with gestational diabetes, however that will require “presenting our case to the payers” and conducting analysis.
“We imagine that our instrument on the being pregnant facet may in the end turn out to be a diagnostic to foretell all these circumstances. However then once more, quite a lot of learning, quite a lot of work. And so I want to see the system pay for welfare. I'd prefer to see the system pay for it [preventive] medication as a substitute of, particularly within the US, simply speaking about, 'Oh, this particular person is sick, let's throw cash at it.'
Sayer stated he hopes employers can play a task in making preventive medication customary, however nearly instantly acknowledged the issues forward.
“And employers may doubtlessly put that on their facet, however employers are attempting to scale back their prices, and in all honesty, this entire system with the way in which reductions and rebates or all the things works, I don't know if anybody is aware of…” he died away. with out ending his thought.
Nevertheless, the inference is obvious: I’m CEO of a $4 billion firm and but I really feel hampered by an opaque system with intermediaries who might not essentially have sufferers' finest pursuits at coronary heart.
To alter that, all of us want a healthcare magic wand. Or realistically, Congress might have to train its energy.
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