This is a public service announcement: Have you seen/heard the news that BD is 
pulling out of the glucose monitoring market?
That’s right. A casualty of the diabetes marketing wars, seeing nothing but “a bleak future in an increasingly competitive marketplace.” One less vendor offering glucose monitors.
Any loyal BD Logic users out there? Fret not; help is on the way. J&J LifeScan, Roche, Abbott, and Bayer Diabetes are all jumping in to offer former BD users free glucose meters and starter packs of test strips to win them over to their camps.
“It’s a smart move because you give away the meters, which pretty much costs nothing, and at the same time you try to build a loyal customer base,” said Phillip Nalbone, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, CNN Money Reports.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a relatively minor player that has backed out of the market, and nothing has really changed that much,” Nalbone says.
BD Logic users might not agree. This guy may not understand how attached we can get to our D-technology. But what can we do? BD users: go pick your free meters now, while they’re good for the gettin’.
Blood Glucose Monitoring Market Gets a Bit Crowded
Blood Glucose Monitoring Market Gets a Bit Crowded -MDL Newsletter.
Not crowded enough perhaps. With diabetes growing at an alarming rate the best the industry could come up with in this day an age is invasive instruments that most people have to sti…
Crap.
I have no great fondness for my bd meter. It works.
But it automatically zaps my sugars over to my minimed pump. And that is COOL.
What does medtronic have to say about this? Bet they are wishing they picked a different meter to sync with…
off to see if I can still order the bd strips through my mail order pharmacy…
I ordered meters from Abbott and Lifescan. My Lifescan meter came with no strips. So much for trying it out.
MM has more than a year to find another meter to talk to the pump. Personally, I would love if they chose Bayer’s Ascensia; no coding, best accuracy of all the meters I ever tried, no coding, reasonable (but not smallest) sample size, no coding, excellent repeatability of results, no coding, excellent pattern analysis software, no coding, reasonably short test time (but not the shortest), no coding, and did I mention NO CODING?
All it needs is that little radio transmitter ….
Cheers,
Felix.
Hey Art-Sweet,
Medtronic is “exploring other meter options,” per their drawer statement here: http://www.minimed.com/meter.html
I’m nosing around to see if I can find out anything more substantial
Thanks Amy!
Felix, how much have you used Bayer’s meters? The two meters they have out are insults to current technology. One requires 3.0 microliters of blood and 15-20 seconds for a result. The other, which I just saw a television commercial for, claims “Fast results” — do they mean to say that 15 to 20 seconds is a “fast result”?
Waiting 15-20 seconds for a result (compared to 5-7 seconds for other meters) means spending more than twice my time waiting for a result.
Let’s hope MM partners with someone with a little more speed.
Being in the Insurance Business for a period of time and talking to many Diabetics about meters and other supplies… I think the Main reason BD and others can’t compete is simply? The Insruance Companies and The Federal Gov’t ( ie: VA and Medicare) control this market..
Meaning- For most with health Insurance, the Insurance company usually Dictates which meter you can use per Supplying the Test strips..
And for the Retail average of about $90 per 100 strips ( 90 cents each ) while these Mfg. Co.’s give upto 60% Discounts for the volume, it’s no wonder they can dominate…and drive competition out.. No matter if the competitions Meter and strips are superior…
I’m just afraid this will lead to All the other Meds and supplies we need as well.. and even limit more than it is now, to get Insulin pumps, etc.
I’m not a user of a BD meter but I have followed this closely since it originally came out a week or so ago. I just wonder who MM will partner.
Lifescan is with Animas and Dexcom
Abbott has the Navigator and Aviator along with the Cozmo
Roche has the Accu-Check Spirit
The ONLY options are take Bayer Diabetes (Ascensia) and partner with them or to buy the rights to the BD line of meters and to continue producing it themselves. Or they can try to develop their own, but that takes a lengthy time to do with FDA approval process, nt to mention they’d have to design from scratch, which doesn’t happen overnight.
Only time will tell what they decide to do.
Hm. I tried two different BD meters and the numbers were all over the map; repeated tests at the same time gave results that varied as much as 150 mg/dL (when it gave a result at all instead of failing!) My veteran OneTouch Profile varied by +/- 15 the whole time.
I (fairly new employee) work in the fulfillment department at AmMed Direct. We are still sending out BD Ultra-Fine 30 and 33 Gauge Lancets and still have BD logic meters. As I stated I have worked for the company for a few months so not sure how much longer we will have the BD Logic products.