“The Freestyle Libre 3 is going to be the thinnest, the smallest, and the most accurate sensor in the world.”
That’s what Dr. Mahmood Kazemi, M.D, instructed me final month. I met Dr. Kazemi, Abbott’s Chief Medical Officer for diabetes care, at the American Diabetes Association’s annual scientific convention. He gave me a sneak peek at the new steady glucose monitor (CGM). He thinks it’s the greatest ever made:
“When you look at the innovation that the Freestyle Libre 3 is bringing to the CGM market, it’s really unmatched. When you see it, you’ll see that it’s unmatched in its measurement. And past that, it’s unmatched in its accuracy, and it’s the solely CGM with a 14-day put on.
“I’m an endocrinologist by training, and I practiced for many years. When I think back to what I had to offer my patients, the Libre 3 system would basically be science fiction. People could not even conceptualize that it could be this small, this thin, this discreet, and that it could last for 14 days with such great accuracy.”
This article will preview the options of this newest Freestyle CGM system. And, when attainable, I’ll examine it to its largest competitor: the Dexcom CGM system.
The Size
The checklist of options begins with the “form factor,” as Dr. Kazemi referred to as it. This sensor is tiny – Abbott, the producer, compares it to 2 pennies stacked on prime of one another.
For any sufferers particularly involved with the measurement of their CGM sensor – whether or not you hate the feeling of clunky gadgets connected to your physique, or continuously end up bumping your sensor into door frames and catching it on clothes – the Libre 3 instantly leaps to the prime of the pack.
The new Dexcom G7 may even be impressively small, far smaller than the G6 system … nevertheless it’s nonetheless not fairly this small.
Image courtesy of Abbott Laboratories.
The Wear Length and Accuracy
Another big feather in the Libre 3’s cap: the 14-day sensor size. A single sensor lasts two weeks.
Accuracy information offered at the convention prompt that the Libre really reaches its peak of accuracy round day 10 of the sensor’s life.
(*3*)
The fact is that each Dexcom and Abbott declare to have created the world’s most correct steady glucose monitor. I don’t know if we’ll be capable of say which system is the true accuracy champion. The necessary factor is that each are nicely inside federal accuracy requirements, and each correct sufficient to principally remove the want for fingersticks.
No More Scanning
If there was one apparent sticking level with the earlier Freestyle Libre CGM techniques, it’s the proven fact that customers didn’t simply get their blood sugar numbers robotically beamed to a devoted receiver or smartphone. They needed to manually scan the sensor by holding their system over the sensor for just a few moments.
Scanning is pointless with the Freestyle Libre 3 – your smartphone will replace with new blood sugar readings robotically. Abbott’s promotional materials has not careworn this level, maybe in an effort to not disparage the Libre 2, which remains to be pretty new and nonetheless promoting nicely. But to me, it looks as if one in every of the most necessary enhancements for the new system. In our survey of CGM customers, guide scanning was often talked about as a significant annoyance with the older generations of Libre CGMs.
Updates Every Minute
Another bonus? The Libre 3 will present new blood glucose readings each 60 seconds.
“The closest competitor offers readings every 5-minutes. With the Freestyle Libre 3, you do not have to wait. You will know where your glucose is going on a minute-by-minute basis, and if you’re having a low, that’s very important information.”
Interoperability
Abbott nonetheless has some work to do right here: the Freestyle Libre 3 won’t be permitted in the United States to be used in a closed-loop computerized insulin supply system with the Omnipod, the Tandem t:slim, or every other insulin pump. Why? The FDA believes that the Freestyle Libre sensor could give inaccurately excessive blood sugar readings to sufferers that eat excessive doses of vitamin C.
Dr. Kazemi assured me that “we are actively working on having that [warning label] removed from the system.” They plan to submit data to the FDA later this 12 months that will assist take away the label and open up the risk of integrating the Libre 3 right into a closed-loop system.
Other Features
The Freestyle Libre 3 brings many different options to the desk, a few of which had been launched with the Libre 2 mannequin, and a few of which can be new:
- Glucose alarms
- Glucose pattern arrows
- Remote monitoring for members of the family/caregivers
- Data sharing with healthcare professionals
- Advanced information evaluation in the smartphone app
- 33-foot Bluetooth vary (50% greater than Dexcom and Medtronic)
- One-piece applicator – an enormous enchancment over the earlier applicator, Dr. Kazemi instructed me.
With all of those options above, the Libre 3 positions itself as a real competitor of the Dexcom G6 and G7 techniques, not only a inexpensive different.
Cost
Given the vagaries and complexities of well being care economics, it’s tough to say precisely what anybody affected person can pay for a Libre 3. For these of us fortunate sufficient to have beneficiant medical health insurance insurance policies (or reside in nations with strong socialized healthcare techniques), the Libre may very well be virtually free. For a few of us, it might be prohibitively costly.
But we will say that the Freestyle Libre merchandise often price lower than the competing Dexcom merchandise. That’s been true for years, and it’s not more likely to change. Abbott is promising that Libre 3 will price precisely the similar as the Libre 2.
Dr. Kazemi instructed me, “Abbott is not charging a premium for bringing such great improvements to the technology. We really just want to make sure that people have access. That’s what we’re all about, accessibility and affordability.”
Abbott, similar to Dexcom, is doing what it may possibly to get insurance coverage protection for sufferers with kind 2 diabetes. CGM expertise could be very important for sufferers with T2 that use insulin – and even for these with out a main danger of hypoglycemia, it may be a beautiful device for optimizing blood glucose ranges.
When will it’s obtainable?
The Libre 3 is already obtainable in some components of Europe. In late May, the FDA prolonged formal approval for the system in the United States, nevertheless it hasn’t been launched but.
Dr. Kazemi might solely inform me that it might be obtainable in the US “later this year.”
