00:00Here at the Concello Spark Summit 2026, it's about leadership, it's about navigating relatively extraordinary times from a geopolitical context,
00:08but it's doing that with grace and focus, and we've got Q Dallara to talk about all of that.
00:13Now, recently gone public, Minimed, it was formerly Medtronic Diabetes. How is life in leadership as a publicly traded company?
00:22Well, first of all, thank you for having me. But let me tell you a bit about Minimed. We are
00:27a diabetes technology company.
00:29And we really serve patients around the world that need insulin to stay alive. And for about 37 million or
00:38so people who manage their diabetes this way, they need to take 8 to 10 injections a day.
00:43And so we really build technology that really alleviates that burden and helps them dose insulin with automation. So that's
00:52what we do.
00:53We're uniquely positioned because we're actually the only company that has all the components of this system, the sensors, the
01:01dosing devices, whether that's a smart pen or an insulin pump, and then the special secret sauce around the software
01:07that drives all of that automation.
01:09So that's what we do. And we're really excited to become a public company. It used to be a public
01:14company before Medtronic acquired Minimed back in 2001.
01:19And so for the community of people in diabetes, they know our brand very well. And we're just excited to
01:25be able to focus every day on diabetes innovation.
01:29So talk to me about that innovation, what the recipe is. You're not going to say the secret sauce of
01:34the software, but there's also a process of getting things through FDA, getting clearance.
01:38How has that been? Because you have got a new product onto the way of making sure that people take
01:44this safely and easily, but with the right scientific backing.
01:47Well, if you go back in time, um, the state of the art, maybe 10, 15 years ago was really
01:53what people call multiple daily injections.
01:55So the, the person with diabetes has to take an insulin pen and dose themselves with insulin. So they need
02:02to know when to dose, how much to dose.
02:04And that's actually really complicated because dosing insulin or managing your glucose has a lot of factors. It isn't just
02:11food, it's stress, it's hormones, whether you're sick, all sorts of factors, 42 of them.
02:16So you're making hundreds of decisions every day. So what we do with our technology is we automate all of
02:22that. We have a sensor that measures glucose in your body continuously.
02:27And we have a special algorithm that says, Hey, if your glucose is rising, we think you're eating.
02:34And this is how much insulin to take. And we deliver insulin doses every five minutes.
02:39So it's like a continuous, um, machine that's doing it on your behalf. And so you're not poking yourself eight
02:45to 10 times a day.
02:46You just wear the pump and it does the work for you.
02:49How has the landscape changed with the innovation of GLP ones and people managing perhaps their health?
02:54Does, has that affected your outlook, the trends that you're seeing in terms of number of people that you're serving
02:58the 37 million?
03:00Well, we focus on people who already need insulin.
03:03Now, GLP ones are really a fantastic therapy that's available now for a lot of people that, uh, can benefit
03:11from weight loss and live healthier lives.
03:13But it doesn't cure diabetes. And so when insulin comes in, if you need insulin, then we come in.
03:19That's where our technology, um, uh, gets involved. And so what we focus on is insulin delivery for type one
03:26and type two.
03:28GLP ones don't remove the need for that. And actually, when you look at the adoption of this automation,
03:33it's really in the low double digit globally. So while the technology is so effective in treating
03:40and managing diabetes, most of the world hasn't adopted it yet. And so that's really the challenge
03:45ahead of us is how do we make people aware of the therapy? How do we help them get on
03:50therapy,
03:50stay on therapy, and really lead better lives without the burden of daily diabetes management?
03:56So how are you educating populations outside of the United States in particular? There is a need.
04:02How do you make sure that they know that yours is the product, the innovation that they want to be
04:06using?
04:06Well, really, we are in 80 countries already. We have an in-store base of over 640,000 people
04:12globally that use our therapies. And it starts with clinical evidence. You've got to be able to
04:18convince physicians as well as payers around the world that your therapy works. And you do that with
04:24science and clinical data. And that's what we do all day long. It's not just getting approval.
04:30That's just the start. But you actually have to explain to physicians and patients around the world
04:36that this is how the therapy works. This is how you use it. This is how you incorporate it into
04:40a
04:40clinic's workflow. And that's an ongoing process. So generally speaking, the level of automation in
04:48technology is you typically see that in the developed world because health systems have funds that can
04:56reimburse those therapies. In the developing world, it tends to be out of pocket. But that's changing
05:03as people realize that, I don't know if you know this, but one quarter of US healthcare is related to
05:09diabetes. So it is a disease that if you can really prevent early on all the downstream complications
05:17of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, eye disease, amputations, can be alleviated if we
05:23manage glucose up front. What you tell is so revealing that a quarter of the spend in the US
05:30is related to diabetes. How is that message getting across to the general investor base? Because you have
05:36an extraordinary round of key stakeholders, whether they be your employee base, you're helping with the
05:41innovation, the users, 37 million people that could be using and adopting technology. Then there's an
05:46investor base that to them is quite niche unless they have a family member affected. How has that been, that
05:51storytelling moment? And how are you seeing it increase as we think about automation, AI, healthcare a little
05:56bit more? You know, the surprising thing is that investors that understand diabetes know it
06:03extremely deeply. I mean, they will know that you have a clinical trial that just got published on FDA clinicaltrials
06:10.gov
06:11and the FDA website before your employees even know that you're doing it. I mean, they are very sophisticated.
06:17They know the patterns. They understand the companies. They have had incredible returns from diabetes. It's a very high
06:23growing market. And so it was very surprising for me to learn that. So they're not journalists. They are actually
06:29very deeply
06:29knowledgeable about diabetes, the technology, and where the future is going.
06:34Where is the future going? We've got a minute or so left. You just took us 10 or 15 years
06:39back.
06:39Yes.
06:39Take us 10 or 15 years forward.
06:41Well, MiniMed is solving a dual problem. So when you manage diabetes, what's hard about it is you can't go
06:48low
06:48because that's dangerous, and you can't go high because that's what drives complications, brain damage,
06:52heart disease, etc. So you've got to kind of stay on an even keel. And that's really difficult to do.
06:58So we are trying to solve a dual problem. The first one is how do we keep people
07:03at a steady level? We call that time in range. You don't want to be too low, too high. So
07:08you want
07:08to be at in range for at least 70% of the time. That's the guideline from the American Diabetes
07:15Association. If you don't have diabetes, you're 95% time in range. So just to give you a sense.
07:20So that's very hard. We use automation to do that. But the second problem we solve for
07:24is you're making 180 decisions a day if you have diabetes.
07:28That's exhausting.
07:29If I'm going to eat a panini, how much should I dose? If I have a meeting and my glucose
07:33is going
07:33to go up, I don't want to be confused. There's so many factors that go into that. We want to
07:38remove
07:38that burden as well. So where it's going is we are trying to be the self-driving car of diabetes.
07:45A self-driving car takes you from A to B. You don't have to drive.
07:49We're trying to do the same thing. Just wear our device. The automation will do the work
07:53so you don't have to.
Comments