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Something new (part 2)
John Hughes and Dean Minnock of Innovation Zed tell
us more about their insulin pen caps under the brand
name InsulCheck. By Sue Marshall.
Here we look in greater
detail at Innovation Zed's
range of insulin delivery
add-on technologies
and their plans for the company
going forward.
Although John Hughes was a
founder of the original company,
Dean Minnock started there in
January 2016. He says, "I saw that the
range of pens available was directly
related to the insulin they delivered
and the manufacture of that insulin.
However, the medication is decided
on by the doctor more than the
patient. Ultimately, the pen is just a
means of insulin delivery. From this,
ideas for other new products evolved.
We could see how sensors were
being used, as well as apps like bolus
calculators, that take out some of
the decision-making for users. It also
became clear that any technology
had to be simple to use as well as
have evidence for its usefulness."
The initial InsulCheck CLASSIC
told the user how long it had been
since the user's last action (a dose).
When InsulCheck CONNECT
launched, it still told you that, but
also featured an automatic logger
that captured the fact that a dose had
happened and what the dose amount
had been. The most recent launch is
of InsulCheck DOSE which {help!].
Finding partners
In recent years, Hughes and Minnock
have been looking for a company
to invest in producing its product
range and recently negotiated an
agreement with SHL, a drug delivery
solutions and contract development
and manufacturing company (CDMO)
which has bases in Sweden, Taiwan
and the USA while its headquarters
are in Switzerland.
Says Minnock, "Our pen cap range
are known as 'agnostic' devices,
which means it can talk to any pen or
app - we just do the pen cap device.
In a way we are emulating a pump
because we're making the pen cap
smarter. For example, it can show
how much insulin is 'on board', which
is to say that it shows what insulin is
still in the user's system, which helps
people to make better decisions
about their dosing. If there is enough
insulin on board, then maybe there is
no need for another dose. We provide
the hardware components and then
the software comes in the form of
whatever app is chosen. That way
you can share data from a CGM for
example, with InsulCheck pen dose
data supplied alongside."
For the last five years, Menarini
has offered InsulCheck as part of its
ecosystem of diabetes care products
available across in Europe, called the
GlucoMen Day Pen Pack.
Minnock continues, "The plan is
to find partners within the sector,
moving from dealing directly with
the people who buy their product, to
working with companies who have
their own people on the ground to
do sales and after-care. In February
2020, we can all recall the arrival
of Covid 19. We were looking for
similar partners to Menarini but in
the USA and Asia. For a while, covid
stopped our plans to meet and talk
to people. We were very keen once
we started to talk to SHL, a company
which could see the demand for
our product growing, and therefore
believed it was a good investment."
App and chance
Continuing to innovate, there's also
a new app where the user manually
puts in details of carbohydrates being
taken. The app calculates and advises
the bolus amount, then tracks the
dose and time of dose. Hughes says,
"We knew we wanted to build this,