BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--T1D Exchange, an organization dedicated to accelerating therapies and improving care in type 1 diabetes, today announced the organization has invested in Admetsys, the first company to develop an artificial pancreas technology for hospital and surgical care. The official collaboration with Admetsys is part of T1D Exchange’s multi-million-dollar initiative to support the development and delivery of automated insulin delivery technology and solutions. Terms of the financing are not being disclosed.
For patients living with diabetes, hospitalization can be extremely stressful and can lead to increased risks as surgeries and other treatments are often provided by non-diabetes specialists. Today, patients with diabetes who need to be hospitalized are asked to turn over their diabetes management to clinical teams who don’t have diabetes expertise. This is particularly stressful for insulin-dependent patients who use medical devices for day-to-day management. Hospitalized patients are forced to surrender their insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGM) and allow clinical teams to monitor and treat using insulin shots and blood glucose meters—a sub-optimal approach in achieving good glycemic control. For people with diabetes, hospitalizations can result in increased health risks, such as severe blood sugar fluctuations, infections and other errors due to unfamiliarity with diabetes care are more likely to occur. This also results in greater labor for hospital staff and increases risks in delivery of care.
Admetsys has developed a revolutionary total Automated Insulin Delivery (AID) system for hospital use to more effectively control blood glucose levels and alleviate some of the stresses associated with diabetic care in the hospital environment. The system uses a standard IV line, which draws a small blood sample (less than a mL) every few minutes, from which it measures glucose electrochemically and returns the blood back to the patient. From this analysis, the system constructs a real-time computational model of the patient’s metabolism and precisely optimizes a balance between insulin and glucose, delivered through high precision syringe pumps. Once a patient begins treatment, no manual intervention is required. To date, the company has conducted three clinical trials with outstanding results:
- 2.5 hour mean time to normoglycemia (80-125mg/dL)
- 97.6% normoglycemic control (80-125mg/dL)
- Zero incidents of hypoglycemia
“We are both humbled and extremely grateful for the generous investment from T1D Exchange,” said Jeff Valk, chief executive officer at Admetsys. “For people with diabetes, glucose control is never more crucial than while admitted to a hospital or surgical center. It is our goal to deal with the surrounding issues and create an effective and safe environment for both the patient and physician. We are excited for the continued research we will be able to conduct and our company’s promise to positively impact patients’ lives.”
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established a new section to streamline evaluation of artificial pancreas technologies. Admetsys was included in this initiative and has since worked closely with the FDA on multiple previously approved protocols.
“The T1D Exchange mission is to accelerate treatments and improve care for people with type 1 diabetes, and our collaboration with Admetsys is the latest proof point of that dedication,” said Dana Ball, executive director and co-founder of T1D Exchange. “Like so many other companies we partner with, Admetsys has developed a truly transformative technology that will improve our patient’s experience and health outcomes.”
Admetsys was a finalist and award winner in T1D Exchange’s inaugural Diabetes Innovation Challenge. The Challenge was held on October 20, 2016 and co-hosted by T1D Exchange and M2D2, a joint venture of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Worcester campuses that incubates medical device start-ups. The Challenge was conceived to provide a comprehensive approach to support the development of novel therapies and solutions for all aspects of diabetes research, clinical care and patient quality of life. Admetsys was chosen among nearly a thousand contestants as the 2nd place winner for the translational track.
To learn more about T1D Exchange and the efforts being made for progressive diabetes research and solutions, please visit the company online here. To learn more about Admetsys and its current research stage, please visit the company online here.
About T1D Exchange
T1D Exchange was founded on the belief that people affected by type 1 diabetes need better solutions faster – better treatments and better care. Our nonprofit organization takes an innovative approach that puts the community of people touched by type 1 diabetes at the center of research that will meaningfully impact their lives. Our integrated model offers researchers access to aggregated clinical, biological, patient-reported outcomes and electronic health record data, all while fostering collaboration among patients, physicians, researchers and industry. Our model is multi-faceted and complex, but our goal is simple: to tangibly improve outcomes for people with type 1 diabetes as fast as humanly possible.
