For many patients with diabetes, pricking the finger to measure blood sugar levels is a constant, yet irritating, task.
Abbott has invented a device designed to eliminate those routine finger pricks, the FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System, and it is now approved to be sold in Europe, the company said Wednesday.
The device was developed by the Illinois biotechnology company’s diabetes arm, Abbott Diabetes Care, which is in Alameda.
The technology works like this: the user wears a small, round sensor on the back of the upper arm, for example, and through a tiny tube inserted just under the skin, it measures the blood sugar levels of tissue fluid. A reader is scanned over the sensor to get a readout in less than one second — one that shows the real-time result, a historical trend and the direction the glucose is heading, so the user can adjust his or her insulin intake accordingly. Disposable and water-resistant, the sensor can be worn on the back of the upper arm for up to two weeks, Abbott said.
So no finger pricks are needed, even to calibrate the system.
More than 382 million people worldwide have diabetes, including 56 million in Europe, and that number is projected to increase by more than 20 percent by 2035, according to the International Diabetes Federation. Wells Fargo analysts noted in an Aug. 21 note that Abbott’s technology could bring in $1 billion in revenue.
“The FreeStyle Libre System fulfills a major need for people living with diabetes,” said Robert Ford, Abbott Diabetes Care’s senior vice president, in a statement. “Our customers told us that the pain, inconvenience and indiscretion of finger pricking were the key reasons they weren’t managing their diabetes as well as they should.”