4 ms·

on the contrary, I wouldn't be too surprised to find that this burst of innovation is happening to coincide with a bunch of patents held and buried by big pharm

on the contrary, I wouldn't be too surprised to find that this burst of innovation is happening to coincide with a bunch of patents held and buried by big pharma coming near their expiration period. up until now there has been zero financial incentive for stakeholders to promote a method of blood glucose measurement which bypasses the need for consumables, and every incentive to prevent such a solution.

joezydeco 4y ago
It's interesting you mention that because Abbott (maker of the Freestyle sensor) is trying to hire like crazy for a project named Lingo. It's pretty much the same technology that will be offered to non-diabetics to offer health monitoring via blood chemistry. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/abbott-ceo-ford-unveils-lingo-line-sports-biosensors-based-diabetes-monitoring-tech https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/abbott-ceo-ford-unveil...
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
  This is still an invasive consumable.
MengerSponge 4y ago
This isn't a 3d-printing type problem where the problem was basically solved twenty years ago but locked behind patent protection. It's really an incredibly hard problem. C8 sold a battery-powered miniaturized Raman spectrometer that strapped to your belly about a decade ago. It was a technological tour de force, but it went under. Battery tech is better, but we're just waiting for some particularly clever team to figure out a different optical stack that is small enough to wear comfortably, delivers enough power to be effective, and is robust enough to wear 24 hours a day.
snowwrestler 4y ago
You can’t bury patents, a patent is a public record. That’s the whole point of patents: an incentive to disclose your invention. If we knew how to do this, but valid patents blocked the broader commercialization of it, then we would not be reading stories about breakthroughs in basic implementations. We’d be reading stories about how companies have products ready to go once the countdown timer hits zero.
- justinclift 4y ago
  > You can’t bury patents, a patent is a public record. There are some exceptions to that, at least in the US: https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/the-thousands-of-secret-patents-that-the-u-s-government-refuses-to-make-public.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/the-thousands-of-secret...
- tpoacher 4y ago
  Apologies, I didn't mean "hide". I meant "bury". As in, obtain the patent as a means to prevent others from exploiting the technology, but refrain from licensing it or exploiting it yourself, because it would undermine your main moneymaker product. So, pharma companies trying to obtain "non-invasive glucose monitoring" patents like crazy, to stop other companies from creating such things, because they want to keep selling pinpricks which rely on a consumable model. Having said that, now that everyone's into "bullshit subscription models", perhaps the era of "bullshit consumables" may be coming to an end.

joezydeco 4y ago

It's interesting you mention that because Abbott (maker of the Freestyle sensor) is trying to hire like crazy for a project named Lingo. It's pretty much the same technology that will be offered to non-diabetics to offer health monitoring via blood chemistry. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/abbott-ceo-ford-unveils-lingo-line-sports-biosensors-based-diabetes-monitoring-tech https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/abbott-ceo-ford-unveil...

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
This is still an invasive consumable.

MengerSponge 4y ago

This isn't a 3d-printing type problem where the problem was basically solved twenty years ago but locked behind patent protection. It's really an incredibly hard problem. C8 sold a battery-powered miniaturized Raman spectrometer that strapped to your belly about a decade ago. It was a technological tour de force, but it went under. Battery tech is better, but we're just waiting for some particularly clever team to figure out a different optical stack that is small enough to wear comfortably, delivers enough power to be effective, and is robust enough to wear 24 hours a day.

snowwrestler 4y ago

You can’t bury patents, a patent is a public record. That’s the whole point of patents: an incentive to disclose your invention. If we knew how to do this, but valid patents blocked the broader commercialization of it, then we would not be reading stories about breakthroughs in basic implementations. We’d be reading stories about how companies have products ready to go once the countdown timer hits zero.

justinclift 4y ago
> You can’t bury patents, a patent is a public record. There are some exceptions to that, at least in the US: https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/the-thousands-of-secret-patents-that-the-u-s-government-refuses-to-make-public.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/the-thousands-of-secret...
tpoacher 4y ago
Apologies, I didn't mean "hide". I meant "bury". As in, obtain the patent as a means to prevent others from exploiting the technology, but refrain from licensing it or exploiting it yourself, because it would undermine your main moneymaker product. So, pharma companies trying to obtain "non-invasive glucose monitoring" patents like crazy, to stop other companies from creating such things, because they want to keep selling pinpricks which rely on a consumable model. Having said that, now that everyone's into "bullshit subscription models", perhaps the era of "bullshit consumables" may be coming to an end.