Dexcom’s CEO has already created some magic for investors.
Last Monday, the maker of continuous glucose monitors for people battling diabetes announced its preliminary fourth-quarter financial results stating that it expects to garner at least $1.03 billion in the quarter that ended December 31, a 26% jump over the same period a year ago.
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But the company’s CEO — Kevin Sayer, who sometimes wears his company’s CGM just to see how it works — is not taking any victory laps. In an interview in San Francisco during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Sayer said there is much more to achieve. Foremost among them is to make the company’s glucose sensing ability more quickly and widely accessible to people, including to type 2 diabetes patients. Most patients who use continuous glucose monitors to better control their blood glucose levels are type 1 diabetes patients needing insulin but a much broader population of diabetics can also benefit from Dexcom’s devices, per Sayer.
In fact, Dexcom has developed a consumer device — called Stelo — that it will market directly to Type 2 diabetes patients who are not on insulin therapy. Dexcom has already submitted the application with the FDA and expects to launch it next summer.
While he has control over some of the internal decisions on product and operations, when it comes to the vagaries of the healthcare industry, Sayer would happily wield a magic wand to achieve his desires. And paramount among that is getting his company’s devices quickly to those who need it.
“I do think getting access to products is still difficult for people and understanding how this whole system works. I would love to wave a magic wand and do that,” he said.
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But it’s not only about accessibility and reducing complexity in healthcare so that people can simply get the care they need when they need to
Sayer wants to wave a wand to transform reimbursement policy.
“I would love to see us pay for [preventive] medicine rather than taking care of people when they’re sick,” Sayer said.
He added that he believes the Dexcom G7 CGM could be used as a diagnostic tool for women who may have gestational diabetes but that would require pitching “our case to payers” and doing studies to prove the device’s diagnostic capabilities. The device currently can be used by pregnant women with diabetes, including gestational diabetes to monitor blood glucose levels.
“We believe our tool on the pregnancy side could ultimately become a diagnostic to predict this type of condition. But again, a bunch of studying, a bunch of work. And so I’d love to see the system pay for wellness. I’d love to see the system pay for [preventive] medicine rather than, particularly in the US, just deal with ‘Uh oh, this person’s sick, let’s throw money at it.'”
Sayer said he hopes employers can play a role in making preventive medicine a standard, but almost immediately acknowledged the difficulties ahead.And employers could drive that possibly on their end, but employers are trying to reduce their costs, and in all fairness, this whole system with the way rebates and discounts or everything work, I don’t know that anybody knows…” he trailed off without finishing his thought.
The inference, however, is clear: I am CEO of a $4 billion company and yet feel hamstrung by an opaque system with middle men who may not necessarily have the interest of patients at heart.
For that to change, we all need a magic wand for healthcare. Or realistically maybe Congress needs to wield its power.
Photo: undefined undefined, Getty Images
Correction and Clarification: An earlier version of the story mistakenly said Dexcom’s CEO is a diabetic. He is not though he likes to wear a CGM from time to time. Further, he believes the company’s G7 CGM can actually diagnose gestational diabetes but currently it is only approved for use by pregnant women who have diabetes but it is not approved as a diagnostic device.
