Barely two months after scoring an FDA nod, Senseonics’ long-term continuous glucose monitor is hitting the market. It is now available in clinics across the U.S. and has secured its first commercial payer: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey.
The device is the first FDA-approved CGM with a fully implantable sensor and the world’s first and only long-term CGM system. The sensor can be implanted for 90 days, compared to the 7 to 14 days typical for the sensors of traditional CGM systems. It uses light-based technology to measure glucose levels, communicating them to a mobile app via a smart transmitter.
Senseonics has already been selling the 90-day Eversense system in Europe for a couple of years. An even longer-term version, which can be implanted for 180 days, earned a CE mark last September. The Germantown, Maryland-based company then inked a European distribution deal with Roche.
In June, Eversense bested two other CGMs, Dexcom’s G5 and Abbott’s Freestyle Libre Pro, in a real-world accuracy study. The study required 23 patients with Type 1 diabetes to wear all three devices for six weeks. Measurements from the devices were compared to plasma readings from a test strip-based glucose meter.
All three devices produced readings that deviated from the meter’s more so than they did in a more controlled clinical trial setting. But Eversense came out on top, mean absolute relative difference of 14.8%, while the G5 posted 16.3%, followed by the Libre Pro’s 18.0%. The study appears in the journal of the American Diabetes Association.