January 20, 2010

JDRF and BD

What was old is new again.

JDRF is in the news with another industry development agreement. This time with BD. The deal is for Micro Needle sets. See the press release with with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back.

The idea is a better set. Better as in less painful, more rapid absorption and less set site infection, inspection and negelection. As I was looking over the 27 eight by ten glossy photographs account of the agreement (Once again my apologies to Arlo Guthrie)
I was struck that this was a flash back of sorts. Like I had heard it before. Not Arlo - I love Arlo -the micro needles.

Sure enough this new release sound a lot like a 2004 press release, about micro needles. Back then Animas did a deveolpment deal with Debiotech to licence micro needle sets. The deal also included development of a 'next generation wearable micro pump.'

Regular DOC readers may rember a mention of this pump in Amy's recent State of Patch Pumping post. I went to a presentation on coming technology back in '04 and the micro needles were talked about as a key feature of the micro pump as well as groovey new sets.

I have been holding my breath since, I swear.

Just to prove how pointless a crystal ball is at predicting when diabetes stuff comes to market back in '04 these micro gems were seen as coming to market in '07.

What happened? Your guess is as good as mine. (Probably better in fact.)

The interesting thing to me isn't so much who shot Johnny Micro Needle in 04-07 but that the technology gets a second look. I can't tell you if this is a better set technology but here is the thing, it may be. YDMV.

Were I to use my guess, I may inclined to bet that the cost and special fabrication skills needed to develop the micro needle set didn't fit into the post J&J R&D budget for Animas and maybe the deal was really all about the micro pump anyway. Animas invested in developing the wireless Ping and Dexcom integration and they gotta draw a line somewhere.

So now JDRF is stepping in and helping get micro needle sets another shot at coming to market. BD is experianced at sharpened sticks and other pointy things so ya would think they can make it work if anyone can. This has the potential to improve living with type 1. (Every little but helps) I am in favor of getting interesting ideas off the proverbial shelf and into use. Given there is an appropriate mechanism to return the investment to JDRF following commercialization this is good news.

When does the press release about the micro pump drop?

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