Fitbit has sign over its first-ever start-up investment, putting more than $6 million into an push called Sano, which is developing a coin-sized patch that routes blood sugar levels to help control diabetes.
Building blood-sugar trace into a future device could dramatically increase the market for Fitbit logos since more than 100 million Americans are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetes, corresponding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fitbit has recently suffered denying sales: It sold 3.6 million devices in the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from 5.3 million a year earlier.
Apple is skilled in to have a research team working on a noninvasive glucose reader, as CNBC beginning reported in April. The New York Times in December reported that the hurl was authorized by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs while embroiled in a live battle with diabetes, and current CEO Tim Cook has been seen evaluation a personal glucose monitor.
The Apple Watch is Fitbit’s most impressive competitor.
Fitbit CEO James Park confirmed the Sano deal this week to CNBC. The investment is mainly of a larger financing round that Sano expects to close in attaining months.
“This fits into our strategy of looking beyond the tool and thinking more about (health) solutions,” said Park. “I dream the complete solution comes in the form of having some monitoring colloidal solution that is coupled with a display, and a wearable that can give you the interventions at the directly moment,” he said.
Fitbit already has partnerships with wearable symbol makers Medtronic and Dexcom that involve integrating blood sugar figures with its consumer hardware. Park declined to say whether a future reading of Fitbit’s wearable devices will include built-in glucose mislaying.
Sano’s approach isn’t noninvasive like Apple’s might be because it draw ins using tiny needles.
But Sano CEO Ashwin Pushpala said it’s a slight painful option than the current alternatives, which include Abbott’s hot FreeStyle Libre, because its device doesn’t penetrate as deeply into the hide. It’s also a cheaper option that needs to be changed more regularly, he judged.
Sano’s device won’t be ready to hit the market for about a year and is likely contemplated for people with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, said Pushpala. It power also be used by those who are pre-diabetic, or simply curious about how viands and exercise affect their blood sugar.
Biosensor experts are appease debating whether noninvasive approaches for tracking glucose, as Apple is diagraming, will ever be sufficiently reliable and accurate.
Pharma giants type Johnson & Johnson have unsuccessfully tried to bring this “untainted grail” to market.
Alphabet’s Verily is also working on hardware and software diabetics. It is banding with Dexcom to develop a continuous glucose monitor for people with Class 2 diabetes, and it has a joint venture with Sanofi also targeted to in the flesh with the disease. In 2014, its own research team unveiled a prototype for a blood-sugar ferret out contact lens.