The Acton, Massachusetts–based company’s Omnipod platform has long been the leader in the patch pump space, with the latest-generation Omnipod 5 delivering nearly $700 million in revenue in the company’s recently announced third-quarter earnings results.
However, the market also has expected entries from Medtronic, Tandem Diabetes Care and Beta Bionics. Some of those could even be on the horizon within the next year.
ViCentra recently closed significant funding to bring its patch pump to the European market and has eyes on eventual U.S. expansion. PharmaSens earlier this year announced a strategic partnership with SiBionics to jointly develop an all-in-one insulin patch pump.
Meanwhile, U-Pump announced progress with its own system. Modular Medical recently unveiled its own next-generation patch pump that isn’t automated, and Embecta won an FDA nod for its own open-loop patch pump, but discontinued the program not long after. Luna Diabetes this year raised $23.6 million to support its own patch pump system.
On Insulet’s third-quarter earnings call, CEO Ashley McEvoy was asked about the company’s expectations amid a growing patch pump market and how Insulet continues to expand its own share.
What McEvoy said
JPMorgan Chase’s Robbie Marcus asked McEvoy how Omnipod is “winning” as the other market entrants move closer.
“It’s really broad-based, balanced growth, which really is showing that our strategy is working,” McEvoy said. “It’s really a combination of very strong, compelling science as evidenced by our SECURE-T2D trial and our RADIANT trial, as well as our very compelling real-world evidence. We really do have this beloved brand. Customers love our differentiated form factor, and we’re going to continue to stay ahead of the curve in that regard.
“[We also have] differentiated access and affordability. I would say our supply chain. We’ve invested over $1 billion over the years to create a highly resilient supply chain that can scale at very competitive cost. We’re producing millions of pods. Last is just the flexibility of our balance sheet to be able to continue to invest in innovation to really continue to stay as a market leader.”
Read more about Insulet and the rest of the diabetes tech industry in our free Diabetes Technology Special Report.
Baird analyst Jeffrey Johnson asked McEvoy about how the company protects — and perhaps extends — its “competitive moat” around patch pumps.
“Our key focus is about expanding the market and really taking people from [multiple daily injections] into the market, and we continue to lead the market,” McEvoy said. “We want to continue to focus on our efforts of making [automated insulin delivery] accessible and available to as many patients as possible coming from [multiple daily injection] therapy.
“It’s the investments that we’re making in our pipeline that you’re going to hear a lot more about [at Insulet’s Nov. 20 Investor Day event]. … You’re going to see us continue to invest so that we are always staying ahead of the curve of demand on capacity investments and making sure that we continue to have a very diversified, very resilient supply chain that allows us to serve more Podders around the world.”
Insulet continues to target the type 2 diabetes population
Omnipod 5 became the first and only such system cleared for type 1 and type 2 diabetes in August 2024. Earlier this year, Insulet SVP and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Trang Ly, shared with Drug Delivery Business News that the company has two planned clinical trials, including one evaluating a fully closed-loop algorithm for the type 2 population.
With the type 2 population clearly a priority, Wells Fargo’s Simran Kaur asked what is driving the company’s updside with Omnipod.
“Obviously, it’s type 2,” McEvoy said. “We’ve been at this for a year. [The market has] unbelievably low penetration rates, less than mid-single digit and with a lot of upside. And we are taking the science to the street, is what I call it. This is really about educating predominantly endocrinologists first, as well as high-prescribing PCPs on the science and the state of science and adoption of care. [We’re] really arming our field to go educate in that regard, doing a lot of peer-to-peer education of AID evangelist, if you will, and making sure that they can help with adoption in the type 2 community.”
Eric Benjamin, who received a promotion to the COO post at Insulet in August, expanded on the company’s type 2 efforts.
“We have the advantage of having a common call point that we’ve been in for 25 years as we’ve built the type 1 business. Those are folks who are already prescribing AID for type 1 who are familiar with technology. It’s a really strong commercial synergy to be able to bring the SECURE-T2D data to that call point and help turn that existing call point into advocates and believers in AID for type 2.
“That’s been a big part of our initial launch strategy is activating our current call point, which has high commercial synergies and is really efficient. We still have opportunity there.”
Direct-to-consumer efforts continue to boost Insulet as well
Kaur’s question also got McEvoy to expand on some marketing efforts as Insulet keeps expanding within type 2. Those efforts include direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing, which appears to be a core strategy moving forward.
“[We’re] activating directly with consumers to make them aware that if they are someone with Type 2 diabetes, they should be seeking out a prescriber and asking them about Omnipod,” McEvoy said. “That has resulted in very meaningful lead in quarter three.”
McEvoy also said the company wants to use the power of its brand to “make AID therapy seem less scary.” She said the company is using DTC efforts to get consumers to ask for Omnipod specifically.
Benjamin elaborated on those specific efforts.
“We’re selling science. We’re selling the benefits of Omnipod, and we’re selling the fact that we’re the No. 1 prescribed product that should be the first line for folks who are considering AID and that message resonates.”
“So, we’re very selective about that to make sure that we’re making the commercial investments and building the relationships that will turn into long-term writers, but we also make sure that we have DTC leads that we can serve those patients effectively. We see a lot of runway to be able to do that effectively as we keep ramping our commercial strength in the market and the team is executing really well.”
