Relief From Pin-Pricking May Be at Hand

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Glucon Inc. isn't alone in its efforts to develop a better glucose monitoring system. More than a dozen startups and academic labs are working on competing technologies. But none of them has a working prototype on the verge of clinical studies that is both non-invasive and offers the ability to monitor constantly.

Glucon's most likely competitor is medical-device giant Medtronic (a company that's a member of the TR Large Cap 100 Index in the health-care sector). Medtronic's core strength in the diabetes market is an insulin pump that offers a less painful and less intrusive way to disburse insulin into the body, compared with direct injections. The company is also in clinical trials for a sensor that measures blood glucose indirectly by reading marker chemicals in the interstitial fluid (located a fraction of a millimeter below the skin's surface).

"You can barely feel the pin prick," says Medtronic spokesperson Deanne McLaughlin. Yet because it involves puncturing the skin, the device has to overcome many more regulatory hurdles than Glucon's device.

Goldberger understands the challenges his tiny company, with 20 fulltime employees, is facing -- namely, the lack of a manufacturing base, easy access to capital, and a distribution network. A large pharmaceutical company partner would solve these problems. And the company recently added Ephraim Heller to its board of directors, the man who built his diabetes management startup TheraSense into an international firm that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue before being bought out in 2004 by Abbott Laboratories.

"It's not impossible to recreate the TheraSense model," Goldberger says, adding that the company could build its own manufacturing, distribution, and sales channels.

Meanwhile, Glucon has a clinical trial underway, with others set to launch soon, to prove the accuracy of their device to regulators. Goldberger hopes to see Glucon "watches" on the arms of diabetics within three years.