Diabetes widespread, but meter sales lackluster

Four-in-10 U.S. adults are expected to develop Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lifetime, according to a new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in August, suggesting that as many as 126 million consumers will be looking for treatment options, including self-monitoring their condition at home. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people in the United States diagnosed with diabetes today stands at roughly 21 million. The number who have diabetes but have yet to be diagnosed is 8.1 million. All told, that’s about 1-in-11 Americans who have diabetes.

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Yet, today that influx of newly diagnosed diabetes patients has not yet materialized. Sales of blood-glucose meters are down 2.3% to $301.4 million for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 7 across total U.S. multi-outlet channels, according to IRI data.



Of branded meters, Bayer Diagnostics’ Contour Next portfolio has been performing exceptionally well of late, generating $13.5 million in front-end sales, up 127.5%. Sales of private-label meters are also doing well, recording $138.2 million in sales, up 14.6%.



The future opportunity within diabetes at retail is in the development of platforms designed to capture the data generated from home blood-glucose readings and uploading that data to a healthcare provider that can provide diabetes management interventions on an as-needed basis. “That is a use-case or scenario that is very much a reality,” said Gurpreet Singh, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Industries practice. “[Also] connecting that back to the provider so that they can look at trends across the cohort of patients. ”



“The evolving payer landscape, driven by demands of increased clinical performance and economic accountability, has created a market energized in disruption,” Scott Verner, CEO and president of Nipro Diagnostics noted recently.