Current Status of Glucose Monitoring Device Market and Future Prospects
According to International Diabetes Federation, around 415 million people are suffering from diabetes as of 2015 worldwide and are going to be 642 million people with diabetes by 2040. Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the blood glucose or sugar levels are too high over a long period. Glucose comes from the foods that are consumed by people and hormone insulin helps the glucose get into the cells to give them energy. Over time, having too much glucose in the blood can cause serious problems such as damage to eyes, kidneys and nerves. Apart from this, diabetes can also cause heart disease, stroke and even the need to remove a limb.
Monitoring the blood sugar level on a regular basis and analyzing the results is crucial in managing diabetes. Self-monitoring of blood glucose level is an integral part of diabetes management because it puts the patient in charge. Regardless of managing diabetes through diet and exercise alone or combined with oral medicines or insulin, the regular blood sugar monitoring provides immediate feedback on how the program is working. Glucose meters are used to self-monitor the blood glucose levels at home or at clinics.
According to IQ4I analysis, Glucose Monitoring global market is expected to reach $11,248.5 million by 2023. The global rise in the prevalence and incidence of diabetes, continuous technological advancement, increasing demand for less invasive products, and an increase in R&D investments are driving the market growth. Increase in obesity population due to lifestyle changes, increase in urbanization, untapped markets like the Middle East, Africa shows that glucose monitoring market has vast opportunities in the coming years. Frequent product recalls i.e. glucose testing strips due to manufacturing defects or supply of expired test strips and less product differentiation among the self-blood glucose monitors are the factors that are restraining the market growth. The limited reimbursement facilities and alternative treatments that include cell-based assays, biomarkers identification and artificial pancreas and high cost associated with Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) are threats to the market growth.
Currently used methods for glucose monitoring are invasive, non-invasive and lab based glucose monitoring methods. The Invasive glucose monitoring includes self and continuous glucose monitoring products and accounted the largest share due to technological advancements, easy use, and patient friendly etc. The self glucose monitoring products are blood glucose monitors, blood glucose test strips, lancets and others wherein blood glucose testing strips segment accounted for the largest share due development of no coding strips, available over the counter, can be used anywhere as they portable and mostly used by type 1 diabetic patients. These invasive techniques i.e. self glucose monitoring products make use blood as sample source for monitoring glucose and are more preferred by doctors to patients due to its accuracy in results.
In case of critically ill patients or patient with type 2 diabetes require continuous glucose monitoring which are used to determine the glucose level in real time throughout the day and night where there is no requirement to draw blood samples to measure the glucose level, unlike finger stick glucose monitoring systems. A sensor containing a tiny electrode with a CGM system is inserted into the body but not into the blood stream and the glucose sensor produces an electric signal that measures the glucose level in interstitial fluid (the fluid in and around the cells) which is connected to a transmitter that sends the information to the data monitoring device using radio frequency and then displays the glucose level on its screen. The advantage of CGM is that they notify and monitor early whether the glucose level is reaching a high or low limit and also notifies while sleeping. Continuous glucose segment is a fastest growing segment of the blood glucose monitor.
Invasive devices involve technologies namely No-strip, No coding and All in one device. Sentec’s has developed fully integrated blood glucose monitor which is the first of its kind to use electrochemical biosensor in the form of an cassette which is based on NoStrip technology which houses up to 100 tests on a continuous tape.
Nowadays, Invasive devices include the development of all in one device (Dario All-In-One Smart Glucose Meter) which includes integrated glucose meter, a disposable test strip cartridge holding 25 test strips, and lancing device that easily fits in the pocket. Recently in 2017, DarioHealth has received funding of $5.1 million from OurCrowd’s Qure, for market expansion which includes new geographies such as Germany. Similarly, Rainbow Medical’s received funding of $1.9 million from JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) T1D Fund to advance its Glyde CGM. Dexcom has partnered with Verily for launching their first product together i.e. miniaturized continuous glucose monitor (CGM).
Non-invasive devices make use of different sources for measuring glucose (urine, tear, saliva, sweat, skin etc) by utilizing various techniques namely optical, transdermal etc. For an instance, the engineers from the University of Waterloo have developed the game-changer blood sugar monitoring device, particularly for individuals with variable blood glucose levels i.e. through the contact lens. Some of the advantages of non-invasive products are reduced complication risks as they are not biosensors and work on different principles in the absence of biological components and economically appealing for consumers as they don’t require lancets or strips. However, the currently available non-invasive product is not successful enough to surpass invasive devices so investments are high risk, lot of investment are required for research, but due there are a number of products in the pipeline which are yet to launch which will create opportunities to this market whose success will dominate a huge sector of the glucose market.
GlucoWise an innovative new product from MediWise utilized two unique technologies namely frequency radio waves and sensors to achieve unprecedented accuracy in non-invasive glucose measurements. Currently, under development and this product is expected to reach the market by 2018. The most commonly performed point of care non-invasive urine test available is urine reagent strip or “dipstick” test which involves placing a chemically treated strip into a random urine sample collected in a clean cup and observing color changes on the strip. Most reagent strips provide information about pH, specific gravity, leukocytes or leukocyte esterase, blood, ketones, bilirubin or urobilinogen, and glucose.
Lab based glucose monitoring tests such as Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c); glucose tolerance test (GTT) and urine analysis are preferred over self-monitoring products as a confirmatory test due to the accuracy of results. The special features of these lab-based glucose monitoring tests are other parameters such as ketone, heamoglobin, sodium levels etc can be monitored which plays a decisive role in critically ill patients in emergencies. The point of care HbA1c measurements ha been adopted by many diabetic clinics to improve the quality of care provided to the patients. HemoCue HbA1c 501 System by Danaher is a fully automated point-of-care system for testing HbA1c.
In case of self glucose monitoring and lab based devices, there is intense competition from large international suppliers and smaller local players who pursue aggressive pricing strategies has created an even more challenging environment, hence the switching cost is low. Other source based glucose monitoring segment which include skin, sweat, tears, saliva etc are growing at a fastest rate due to increased R & D investment, many products CE approved and expected launch very soon in the market. Among end-users, home care segment accounted for the largest share due to the availability of self-blood monitor over the counter and ease in operating these monitors and thereby reduces dependence on any clinics for glucose check.
This market is consolidated because the majority of the glucose monitoring is occupied by major players such as Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Medtronic, and Ascensia these companies have a strong distribution networks and have multiple channels to reach the patients, whereas, in Non-Invasive glucose monitoring market competition is very limited number of products launches.
Geographically, North America region dominates in revenue followed Europe by due to favourable reimbursement coverage and high investments in healthcare infrastructures that have led to the market growth in this region. Asia-Pacific is fastest growing due to increasing healthcare awareness, large patient pool, higher disposable income and rising aged population.
The major players operating in the glucose monitoring global market are include Roche (Switzerland), Dexcom (U.S.), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), Medtronic, Inc. (Ireland), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), AgaMatrix (U.S.), Arkray (Japan), Ascensia (Switzerland), Trividia Health, Inc (U.S.) and BioRad (U.S.).
Some of the other emerging and startup companies operating in glucose monitoring market are Arkray (Japan), Bauer (Germany), Bremed (Italy), Carematix Inc.(U.S.), Dario (U.S.), EmsiG GmbH Co. (Germany), HemoCue AB (Sweden), Integrity Applications (Israel), Nemaura Medical Inc (U.K.) and Mediwise (U.K.), DiabetOmics, Inc. (U.S.) etc.