Medtronic buys a nutrition data start-up for the treatment of diabetes

Diving Brief:

• Medtronic is expected to acquire Nutrino Health, a provider of nutritional data analysis, in Israel, to strengthen the offering of its diabetes treatment group. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed by the companies.
• The medical device company intends to incorporate Nutrino's food testing capabilities into its own diabetes treatment devices to help patients better manage their disease. Nutrino's services include artificial intelligence tools that allow for a personalized analysis of the impact of nutritional intake on a person's health.
• At the closing of the transaction by the end of the third quarter, Medtronic will acquire Nutrino's Nutrino Nutrino Food, Nutritional Analysis System and Nutritional Expertise database.

Insight on diving:

Medtronic is at the forefront of the industry in the development of diabetes management technologies. He built the first FDA-approved closed-loop hybrid system that continuously monitors blood glucose levels and administers insulin doses, the "artificial pancreas".

With the acquisition of Nutrino, Medtronic aims to simplify food management and nutrition for diabetic patients. Nutrino has developed algorithms to predict glycemic responses to food. Medtronic is looking to integrate this technology into its Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system and its closed-loop insulin delivery systems.

In the second quarter, revenues for the diabetic group increased 26.2%, primarily due to sales of the MiniMed 670G Hybrid Insulin Pump System and the Guardian Connect Continuous Glucose Monitoring System.

Medtronic and Nutrino started working together in June 2016 and Nutrino has been involved in Medtronic's recent US product launches, the two companies announced. These include an updated iPro2 myLog app used with professional CGM devices and the Sugar.IQ Diabetes Assistant app used with the Guardian Connect Smart CGM system.

The Sugar.IQ application uses IBM Watson analytics to look for trends in blood glucose data and provides real-time personalized feedback based on insulin dosages, daily routines, and other factors taken by the patient.

The iPro2 myLog app allows the doctor to evaluate the patient's meals based on their glucose response. Patients record activity and blood glucose results and take pictures of each meal and snack to record their food intake. The platform generates a model snapshot showing time in the target glucose range, glucose variability models, and a graph of complete glucose tracing. A second report called FoodPrint generates scores (A, B, C, D, or F) for each meal based on the glucose response in the body.

"Integrating Nutrino and its nutrition-related expertise into our organization will allow us to differentiate ourselves significantly from the diabetes industry and accelerate our progress in helping people with diabetes to live in greater freedom and freedom." in better health, "said Hooman Hakami, president of Medtronic's Diabetes Group.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized during the third quarter of Medtronic, closed on January 25, 2019. The transaction is expected to be neutral for earnings per share in fiscal year 2019.