#418 Dexcom G7 Update

December 10, 2020Scott Benner

With Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer

Kevin Sayer returns to talk about Dexcom. Learn more about the Dexcom G7 and find out how you can see video and pictures of the new G7 right now.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or their favorite podcast app.

G7 Video and images - Watch Scott’s blood glue live

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:07
Hello, everyone and welcome to Episode 418 of the Juicebox Podcast Today is a special episode for a number of reasons. I have Kevin Sayer back, and Kevin is the CEO of Dexcom. He's here to tell us about what's happening with Dexcom. It's giving me as much information about the g7 as he possibly can, and some of it is very exciting. We talked a little bit about how Dexcom is doing and where they're headed. I asked him as many of your questions as we had time for I only had Kevin for a half an hour Today's been really busy. But I got in as many of your questions as I could. And I'm already making plans to have somebody from Dexcom come back on and answer the rest. At the end of this podcast episode, I'm gonna give you two links. The first one is going to allow you to watch my blood sugar live online, so you can see how it working pancreas functions, and I'll talk about that with Kevin inside of the episode. At the end of the episode, I'm going to give you a link where you can go see pictures and video of the new Dexcom g7. Right now though, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. If this is your first time listening, hit subscribe in your podcast player don't have a podcast player, get one. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod tubeless insulin pump, you can get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod sent directly to your door right now by going to my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box. When you get there, you put in a tiny bit of information. And guess what? They'll send you an omni pod right to your house. It's nonfunctioning so you don't need to be scared of it. But you can wear it and see exactly what the process looks and feels like for you personally. And if you'd like to find out more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. dexcom is a longtime sponsor of the show. This ad is not just here because Kevin is on today. dexcom.com forward slash juice box my omnipod.com forward slash juice box and let's just throw this in for good measure. Checkout touched by type one at touched by type one.org absolutely fantastic Type One Diabetes organization. Okay, before we get started with Kevin, I recorded myself putting on a Dexcom g six just a couple of hours ago. And there's a special guest with me helping me out.

Okay, everybody. Hi, Scott. I'm gonna put on a Dexcom g sixth.

Unknown Speaker 2:52
Right now, actually.

Scott Benner 2:55
Where did I put the box? I see it. It's a Dexcom je six but on the box. It says hello Dexcom which is a new opportunity from Dexcom for people to test drive the Dexcom heaven say who is going to be on the show and just a little bit to tell you more about it. But I have one right here. And also if you're listening to this now, and it's December 10 2020. Let's see if it's between December 10 and December 20. My blood sugar will be live at Juicebox podcast.com forward slash CGM live. And I'm going to double check that to make sure I'm right about that. Yes, Juicebox podcast.com forward slash CGM live. When you go there, you will see my blood sugar in real time. And I'm going to be putting in the food that I'm eating. My goal here is to give you a reasonable look at what a functioning pancreas does. So that you can have an idea of what it is you're shooting for. As you're managing type one diabetes. Alright, so nice little box. It's like there's like a startup guide in there. You have to go to dexcom.com forward slash hello to activate it looks like and here's a sensor. One banging into the microphone and a transmitter. Okay. Let's see. I know how to do this to somebody else. But I don't have a lot of experience doing it for myself.

Wash and dry hands. I just got the shower, peel off adhesive backing, do not touch adhesive place applicator on skin, fold and break off safety guard. press button to insert sensor remove applicator from skin leaving patch and hold her on. I know how to do all that throw away applicator. Clean transmitter with alcohol wipe, insert transmitter tab first, snap into place. Rubber out the patch three times so far I know what I'm doing. And the rest is for after the sensor session ends, it's about how to get rid of it when you were done. Okay. Look into my startup guide.

guides nice it explains everything your smart devices, shows you what the applicator is shows you how what's interesting, it shows you how the transmitter excuse me, it shows you how the sensor bed is inside the applicator shows you what the transmitter is how it works to your phone, choose app receiver, both

of the other Dexcom receiver you can use the Hello Dexcom with it.

Unknown Speaker 6:11
Set up the app

Scott Benner 6:14
tells you how to set the app up. Alright, I'm gonna put this on. I kind of want to put this on my arm. I'm gonna try to get some help. Hold on one second. I'll be right back.

Okay, so I'm going to put this G six on, but I'm going to put it on the back of my arm so I enlisted a little help. And somebody here who you've never met before. Just say hello, hello. Get a little closer to the microphone.

Unknown Speaker 6:49
Hello. Okay, this

Scott Benner 6:50
is Arden. Arden is going to help me with the application. You know what you're doing? Open that up for me. I'll get the transmitter. So I'm going to put it What do you think? Should I put on my dominant arm or my arm? I don't use as much. You have no opinion about this whatsoever. All right, I'm gonna put it on my left arm. So want to put it let me take these headphones off. I want to put it

Unknown Speaker 7:28
like what do you think? Do you want to go this way? Or this way? What do you think? It's up to you.

Unknown Speaker 7:38
And I think it should be back here more. So like this. Do you want to go in this way? and have it go the other way? This way? Yeah. Like, where will that be when I'm standing? Here? Okay, let's do that. Okay, good to see ya. Take off the sticky.

Scott Benner 7:58
Wait, we should follow the directions. We do this all the time. Yeah, no, but this is like a different might be a little different. says when prompted enter your sensor code. All right. I guess we can stick it on now. Right. All right. You're on the microphone. Sorry. God. You put it you figure it out.

Unknown Speaker 8:25
Let's just figure

Unknown Speaker 8:26
it out. There,

Unknown Speaker 8:30
okay. Push it down real good. Okay, now you're gonna do the Take this. You're going to do this like pull away method with the pinch. No idea what that means. So pinch it, like give it a little tension.

Scott Benner 8:51
And then kind of pull slightly away from the direction it's gonna go in.

Unknown Speaker 8:56
Okay, can you turn this way? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 9:00
What am I doing?

Scott Benner 9:04
As I push it, yeah, before you push it, hold it there. I'm ready. This feels wrong. Okay, just do it. Oh, I didn't even feel it. It's done. Yeah. Nice. Okay, push down on the stuff for me. Okay, clicking the transmitter. So put the shower cover on.

How's it look? Alright, do better than you do. What you did it better than me. Say hi to everybody. Just say hello. or didn't hear she's helping me put on the G sex transmitter. So we just put it on. And I'm going to set it up as an app on my phone as you do. And then I'm going to make it available for you to see online. So it's on it next. So as to take a picture of The transmitter box that says

Unknown Speaker 10:07
done.

Scott Benner 10:09
Enter the code from the sensor. It wants to pair already with it. Take a picture of the sensor code

Unknown Speaker 10:19
done.

Scott Benner 10:22
Next sensor has been in and start center. So I'm in the warm up. Thank you. Arden. Come here, come a little closer to the microphone. tell everybody what you're gonna do next year. Say it. Say it. Arden's gonna be on the podcast, aren't you say? Say, say, say? You are though, right? Yep. Yeah. Look how excited she is about it. tell people exactly how excited you ready to be on the podcast. bare minimum bare minimum excited. That's not bad. Right. Okay. Well, thank you very much. And here comes Kevin Sayer with some news about Dexcom. And then I'll give you details at the end about how to follow my blood sugar. And how to see video and images of the brand new Dexcom g7 coming in 2021.

I can't unmute you. That's because I'm not used to someone else starting a zoom call. I'm used to being the one in charge. Okay, well, this is perfect. I just, I have mine set up to come up. unmuted. Let me just check you on the recording.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 11:35
I usually start on mute as well.

Scott Benner 11:37
Yeah. Let's see. All right, you're good. Well, how are you?

Unknown Speaker 11:44
Good.

Scott Benner 11:45
Yeah. I I see

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 11:47
Christmas boxes in the back. You're at least attempting to celebrate?

Scott Benner 11:51
Yes. Old St. Amazon comes every day here. It seems like it's just Yeah,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 11:56
I know how

Scott Benner 11:58
that goes. That's awesome. Not exactly the most fun way to a holiday shop for people. But no,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 12:04
especially when they see it dropped off and go. What did you get me?

Scott Benner 12:07
Someone checks there? The box like, Oh, this isn't for me. And I think the unspoken end of that sentence is and I know what I'm getting for Christmas. So it's we're doing our best. Not the worst thing.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 12:18
Hi. We all we're all just doing our best.

Scott Benner 12:21
Yeah, I mean, maybe right. Maybe the vaccines will start to to get in use. And this time next year, this may be it'll be a little bit of a mess this

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 12:30
time next year. I think we could I think we could expect to be in a good place this time next year.

Scott Benner 12:35
Yeah. I know. My wife is downstairs killing herself working on one of the vaccines. So if she Yeah, she worked with. She works for Janssen. Okay, so she's working on Yeah,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 12:48
here. And I've read very good things about about that

Scott Benner 12:52
vaccine. Everybody's got their fingers crossed, that's for sure. I if everyone's working half as hard as she is we should be okay. So awesome. Down there all day and night. So I have to say the last time we talked, I teased that I asked if anybody had any questions, and I sorted and get any. And I did it two hours ago, and I am up to 305 questions. So I might have jinxed myself. I

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 13:13
think we got I don't think we are talking 305. So

Scott Benner 13:16
a lot of them seem more Jake related. So I might have to maybe I'll hassle Jake to come on in the in the new year.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 13:23
Well try me. And then if I can't do it, I'll do it in general terms, and you still ought to have Jake on anyway.

Scott Benner 13:29
Cool. That sounds great. All right. Yeah, he's been great. And these are a lot of technical, more technical stuff, like people ask him for things about apps and stuff like that. But anyway. So you had a, you had your revenue call yesterday, and I feels like you let some new information out into the world. And I thought I would get a piece of it here on the podcast.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 13:49
Sure. We had our investor day yesterday we do. We've done two now we did one in 2018, where we told the world that we would be at $2 billion between two and two and a half billion dollars in revenue by 2023. And we gave him some profitability metrics as far as operating margins and such. And as we look at the end of the 2020, we're not quite to $2 billion, but 1.9. And we've exceeded the operating margins we gave them back then. So we felt it was important to reset the bar and give everybody a clearer vision because obviously the growth has been faster than we had projected at that time. We didn't project growing another 40% each of the last two years combined. Yeah, you know, and continuing that growth rate. And so we want to make sure everybody knew where we were coming from and and we said another five year target to four to four and a half billion out in 2025. We talked about our three pillars of growth. And then this is our base business in US type one intensive insulin management because that's the backbone of our company. That's where we come from. Those are our roots. We always want to be big in that market, then going moving to type two patients who aren't on insulin in the US to start but you know, elsewhere in the world on top of that, and then finally, geographical expansion more into our, our core type one business we we don't have near the revenue Oh us as we do in the US and we need to, you know, become more of a global company, we have plans to do that. And we laid some of that out. We talked a bit about our future product offerings. And, you know, just some of the things we see it was a good day, very well received by and large. Excellent.

Scott Benner 15:32
Now, you guys very recently, you're in is the g7 in Australia yet? It is right or no,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 15:39
not quite. I think it's fair. There's just been one other administrative snag there close. There'll be there very soon.

Scott Benner 15:46
Yeah, I hear from Australia, a lot. People in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia as a country, I hear from listeners a lot, looking for Dexcom. It's interesting, where

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 15:55
I hear the same thing. And we were working on distribution arrangements in Saudi Arabia that I haven't yet been finalized. But I think they're very close to getting the right distribution partner. One of the things about a company like Dexcom, that's somewhat lost on people. When we decided to go to Saudi Arabia, we don't have anybody there. Whereas you take the larger conglomerates, the j&j, the Abbott, the midroc, whoever, well, they have other businesses in Saudi Arabia, they do business there, they have somebody to call, they have somewhere to go, we don't. And so we figured out from scratch was as led to some great experiences and some great learnings. But it's, it's just something that is kind of ignored, is a very complicated factor

Scott Benner 16:42
in growing a business, you literally have to start from the ground up, you have to build Dexcom in a new country. Well,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 16:47
and I think, five, six years, six years ago, we had three or us employees. And now we have several 100 direct offices in the UK, Canada, Germany, our corporate headquarters, Ramya. In Scotland, we have our call center, Manila, started a manufacturing plant in Malaysia, and we're setting up another call center for our, our EMEA business, or you're a business owner in Lithuania. So literally, we are fulfilling that. But we have to build it all from the ground up. We don't have anything

Scott Benner 17:22
else to rely on. Do you share how many current users you have?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 17:27
We did we shared 900,000 was the number we put out yesterday. And that's active users. It's not you know, a this one bought a receiver this one, but it's based very much on on actual data, who we sell centers to it cetera. So that's a good number. That number was in the 600,000. Last year. So obviously, we've grown a lot. And that's absolute growth in active users, not just users, we've really done a good job expanding technology. And we'll push it much harder. Even next year.

Scott Benner 18:00
I wonder how many people realize that companies will report like a million people downloaded our app, but only 10,000 of them ever opened it. But when they talk about they're like we have a million users. And

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 18:10
well, it's like, in the old days. We used to talk about going way back to 2008, nine months board member we based on how many receivers we sold. That's how many patients everybody thought we have. And that was it. I mean, that's how sophisticated it was. And if those receiver sales didn't meet the quota of the analysts, when everybody thought the world was ending, it's not that way anymore. It's but you know, you try and develop analytics and all this stuff you do the best you can. We have certain groups that are hard to track. I mean, for example, a tandem pumper who doesn't ever download their day to clarity and they buy their centers from from the pharmacy, we may never have visibility to that person. And their use cases. Patients use the receiver all the time we get visibility them if they downloaded clarity into their office, doctor's office, but otherwise we don't have as much bill visibility that so we have to come up with other metrics through groups like acute VA and pharmacies to to track and

Scott Benner 19:18
make sense. I happen to be wearing a Hello Dexcom I

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 19:23
just Oh, you got the highest so you're doing the Hello Dexcom experience

Scott Benner 19:27
I am I just put it on. It's not It's not even through the warm up yet. It's gonna be on for about another hour. And it got me excited right away because I don't talk about it usually, but my brother has type two diabetes. And he he should have a Dexcom he just should. And I don't know if I've ever been able to explain it to him in a way that you know, some people just don't hear it. So now I'm excited that he can just he can is that am I ready? You just go to his doctor and ask for it.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 19:54
He can try it. He can get a prescription now then the tough part for your brother. If he's hot. on multiple daily injections or a pump, and he should qualify with most payers certainly with with, with Medicare and Medicaid programs. But yeah, he can get a prescription he can try it and he can learn. And we just, you know, patients have asked for that forever, we had to restructure our business. To do that we were there were certain federal laws that prohibited us from a sampling program. We've gotten out of the business activities that prevent us from doing that. So we we can, we just think the sampling program is very important to give people an idea of what they're going to experience. And and Scott, you know, this, if you go back in time, particularly two, three years ago, where we had very little pharmacy coverage and didn't have the commercial reach, we have now going through the paperwork to get a Dexcom. And then paying that copay, upfront, just to try it was something a lot of people really struggled with doing. Yeah, well, now we can give you an experience, okay? Where this right, we're confident you'll like it, we're confident you'll learn about your body, learn about what you eat, you'll learn about your workouts, you'll learn good things, and and we think it's going to be a great tool for clinicians and for patients, well, I'm

Scott Benner 21:11
going to use it. So the reason I asked for it was, I've actually, I've got it set up on my website. So when this goes live, anybody's gonna be able to watch my blood sugar while I'm wearing this sensor, okay, and, and oh, so I wanted

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 21:26
I tell you what not to eat.

Scott Benner 21:28
Well, I'm gonna go the opposite way, I'm gonna I want to show people who are using insulin, how a pancreas works, so that they don't freak out when they see a little bit of a rise sometimes and comes back down. You know, I think too many people are shooting for an absolutely stable line at 85 that never moves, and it makes them crazy sometimes. So I thought, let them see what it really looks like, if you don't have diabetes, maybe that'll make them feel a little more comfortable.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 21:53
So it's interesting, you say that, because I showed my line to a leading endocrinologist and you know, I wear these a lot. And his response to me was your lines too flat, either you're not eating anything, or you produce too much insulin, and that's not healthy either. Wow. And, and, and physique wise, carrying too much weight in the middle, which I do, anybody who knows me can see that. That's a sign of over insulin production. So I, I watch that pretty closely. It's okay to have a spike, you're right, it is okay to have a spike. Now, the spikes that you create that are bad. I mean, I can give you a list of my top 10 worst foods pretty easily. The worst by far is chocolate covered raisins. Because you combine the rapid acting sugar in the chocolate, the rapid acting sugar in the raisins, and then you get another shot from the fat from the chocolate later, I can send myself into a glucose coma with that. And I learned that I said an investor conference back in the g4 days wearing a sensor and my glucose hadn't moved at all. I was in the airport and I got myself a cup of chocolate covered raisins and ate it and it's probably one of the two or three times I've broached the 200 mark, ever. And it wasn't a good thing. But that's that's probably my nine raisins are held that raising all those foods are fine for you. It's just moderation in them and understanding what to do so yeah. Well, people are going to have fun watching,

Scott Benner 23:23
I'm going to let everybody actually after they watch now that I figured out how to act, allow the data to be accessed. I'm actually going to let listeners who feel like they're really great at bolusing for certain foods, let them go live eat a meal and show people how they do it so that people can learn from each other about how they Bolus so I'm kind of great What a great service and community I think that's gonna be something Hey, are there any foods that you have learned that you just don't eat anymore? Or do you

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 23:51
worry about my laundry cars use anymore? And it wasn't great some requests for me but I loved it but that gives me a huge spike. Me personally, I think I've learned some things that aren't as bad pasta and white sauce is bad and I will occasionally have it because I I like it so much but boy I think twice about it. Yeah, some foods not as bad as I thought like for me a piece of chocolate cake is much worse than a bowl of ice cream. As far as a glucose spike for me and I would prefer the chocolate cake. But so you start looking at things and I obviously am not so physically fit that I've eliminated everything bad from from my diet but and you think twice about quite honestly about about bread you know, do I really need that rice. Rice is a and those sweet sauces with Chinese food are a killer. So if I you know there's a when I'm in the office, there's a barbecue place downstairs, a fresh grill place I get the veggies in the steak without the rice and My glucose doesn't move at the rice up. So I bet you'll learn things like that and sauces. Because I love a teriyaki sauce or something like that it, it makes everything significantly worse. My other biggest learning is just exercise. If I get a good workout in the morning, I have a glucose spike with a workout. But the entire rest of the day is 10 to 20%. better for me, well, no matter what I eat, because just getting your body to get things moving, I think does mean a tremendous amount

Scott Benner 25:34
of good helps your insulin be more effective. I got a bunch of questions. And I think this is something you guys must have spoken about yesterday. But a lot of questions about app updates are follow and are those apps being updated?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 25:49
Well, I can walk through it. g seven will obviously have a brand new, we said to show. So we'll have a brand new app, completely different experience than what we have with G six. And our goal here is again, to create something more engaging, we certainly are going to get rid of our the the arrow and the you know the up and down thing or we think our glass has kind of a trademark for us and graphs. But adding some of the retrospective data from clarity into the app to give you a direct time in range computation, for example, and things like that at right in the app rather than going to another one we think will be very helpful to patients. So we've got a new app coming for g7, we announced that we are going to launch a couple of other products with different user experiences we didn't get into the details. But those are coming we are working on on a follow upgrade. And that's when you'd have to talk to Jake more about because you know follows not a product that we charge for. It comes with the system, but we you know, ever since the outage that we were talking about a year ago at this time, and I still wake up in a cold sweat with nightmares about for the patients not for me. Yeah, you know, I, I, we've done nothing but work on that platform to make it more robust. And we continue to invest in it because I think ultimately this data is going to be critical to our future success. So we are making big investments or you'll see a new follow up. Okay, but I can't really give you a time frame of that. I know they've been working on it for quite some time here.

Scott Benner 27:19
androids in that working to

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 27:22
Android is working out for follow, I'm sure they'll do both we we do have a an upgrade to the Android app coming. And we couldn't override the mute button with Android. And we've had discussions with FDA about trying to get to the same place we got to with iOS on the mute button, we are working towards that. We did announce there is a new there's improvement to the algorithm that just got approved, it will not be out immediately. They'll be out soon. We have to since we embed our firmware on the transmitter, we have to go through the transmitters we have an inventory now that what that algorithm does really those sensor failures where data shuts off, we eliminate a lot of those with this upgrade. And so with the with the new algorithm, the team has worked very hard to make the product better and and you know, we want to deliver the experience we promise. And and that's why we've been a bit you know, people asked a bunch of questions. Last earnings call, why are you doing g seven, you know, for 10 days to start? And the answer is very simple. We want to deliver 10 days like we promised it's taken us a while to get g six to the 10 day delivery point that it is now but instead a very good place. These can be better with that algorithm, we can do the same thing with G seven. The accuracy of the product 15 days is not the problem. It performs very well we show to display a chart in the presentation show how well it worked. It's just as he said, we got to make sure we have the right adhesive that they don't fall off and number two to meet I CGM standards. And as we as we do this, we do turn the sensors off. And if appears there, they're not going away. It should be in anticipation of that rather than give a patient that data. We don't want to be turning a bunch of sensors off at 12 or 13 days. And our reliability data. You know right now it's a 15 day we showed in chart was around 71%. That's not good enough for us. We need that number to be higher. We don't want to say hey, you get a 15 day sensor but you can call us 12 days every time and get a new AI now think of the business model what what are we accomplishing with that so we'll get there. Right? But it's just a it's a question of time but those are the things we talked about on the technology side we showed more pictures of g7 how easy it is to use, how easy it is to put on. We showed some real about the automated factory everything is automated all the steps to it so we think we can scale very quickly as we Get Real Estate, replicate one manufacturing line from the next and get going, we've got the first few in and we'll have several of them up and running before the end of the year. So I'm good on that future technology side.

Scott Benner 30:12
So you think not holding you down anything but this time next year you and I'll be talking about g sevens on the leash

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 30:20
I what we've said, and I go back into our statements, we said we'd launched it in 2021. Okay, it's now going to be a function of how quickly we can execute our clinical studies, prepare submission and get it filed. all at the same time while scaling up, we will launch it in 2021. And we've said geographies, which means certainly there's some international element to this, we've finished this study that we just filed on clinical trials.gov for up to 150 patients, we finished that. And in November, we're analyzing that data, we have more studies that start that'll be included in submissions in January. And we'll update people more as we go. A lot of it's gonna depend on how we how well we execute or confident in a product's performance. These ice jam standards, the FDA is set Well, there's part of me that will sit in bitch about how hard they are to me, I'm gonna tell you something, if a product can meet those standards, what the FDA did is they said you got to be good. If you're going to do this, you have to be really good. And and and that's what makes it tough. We have to make sure we're really good. And you've got to get low glucose into steady high glucose points across the board. I mean, they really addressed all the problems that happened with CGM, when they hit those standards and to fit in those buckets, you got to be pretty well. And we want to fit in those buckets to whereby we did announce our warm up will be an hour or less. That a lot out of town what we seen the clinical study faster, warm up is good for us. But when we're done with warm up, we want to be done. That you can rely on the data immediately not wait for 12 hours before you can make an insulin decision like others have done or have to calibrate it four or five times or we're not going there. We know what our patients want. And we need to deliver it then those are the decisions that

Scott Benner 32:08
we're making. And that one hour warm up that'll be for g7. It's not

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 32:12
Yeah, I said I said one hour or less. I haven't given you the we have place that we have it we have a we have I have my aspirations, the team has their aspiration. And then we have the our on the upper bound. So we'll see where we land, Kevin's aspiration is always turn it on and go and they aren't to my aspiration yet. So we'll see. Ironically, I don't know. It's really interesting to study sensor data and learn about that. It does take a while to warm up. But that's very much a function of into into individual physiology as well. There's some people you can put these in and they go immediately there's some people you put them in and it takes a while. I'm starting

Scott Benner 32:49
to learn that with Arden it it's um, depends on some of our hormones. Actually, I get a different reaction certain times of the month. Wow. Wow, I

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 32:57
did not know that he or she I haven't I've had I've been I've had other parents tell me that.

Scott Benner 33:02
Yeah, it's interesting. I got a question about COVID assistance you guys offered it is there any chance it's going to be extended?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 33:09
We'll continue to offer COVID assistance to Dexcom patients who lose their insurance. And that program is relatively robust as far as, as patients, it's, you know, for our patients, and there's a process they go through. We do have an outside party, administer, administer it. But yeah, we will continue with that program. And we'll analyze it and look at it and see if there's other things we should do as well. I can't commit to anything, but I have asked the team to look at some other things we could do. But if you're on Dexcom last year insurance and come to us, we absolutely can get you in that program.

Scott Benner 33:46
Okay. A couple other quick ones. A lot of people just wanted me to convey that they love Dexcom that happens all the time and how great it is. But almost equal number of people asked me to ask you if you could make some green considerations about packaging, who was that they just they liked to see less cardboard and stuff like that. So I thought I would tell g7

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 34:06
is maybe half the size of G six. As far as the insertion device. The box is much much smaller. With respect to the cardboard and the packaging. It's interesting. We've had long writing discussions with the FDA about how much we have to publish and put in a box on the green factor. Couldn't we do this all electronically but it's a medical device. FDA relies on labeling and they believe patients read all the labeling and may not go to online to read them all. I think you'll see a lot of that stuff change. We are looking at Green options for the future of other changes, we can make less class less plastic, obviously 15 days versus 10 is less plastic. But at the same time, 15 days if it doesn't work 15 days in and being more plastic. So we're we consider all that III agree with everybody on that one I think we need and we are better, we will be better. Ironically, as big as the G six applicator looks, it really was no more plastic than the G five

Scott Benner 35:10
What was I realized? While I was looking at people's questions today that I'm steeped in this 24 hours a day for years. So when they ask questions, I'm like, we've answered that question before, but I realized they're new to it, and they don't, they don't see it, you know,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 35:23
everybody's a different place. And I'm happy to address those.

Scott Benner 35:27
I appreciate it. Somebody asked me to ask, you know how you you guys are free with your data for like, third party apps? Is there any changes coming to that? Or is that gonna stay the way it is?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 35:37
They'll stay the way it is. Okay.

Scott Benner 35:39
So apparently, there was a rumor floating around that that was gonna change. And it got to a person who third

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 35:44
party apps. Now the question becomes, or where this becomes difficult over time is those who who use the data in their own ad systems and things like, you know, patient choose our data and our things for a number of varieties of activities, does this become a an activity that Dexcom cuts off for everybody else, and we monitor it closely we watch. We've had discussions with the FDA, we've we've, you know, we've been tried to be helpful with the patient community, there may, there may come a day when we can't, I would love the opportunity or the ability to be able to figure out a way to do this in a structured manner. But so far, it's been tough, but now we're not we're not shutting out third party apps at all, if anything I want, I want more of them. And and maybe someday, you know, again, you asked me like to the future, maybe there's a day where we say, you know, but your app doesn't do anything for us. It's okay not to go there. I don't, I haven't seen that yet. But but we'll see. There might be some. But right now, we've been pretty open with that.

Scott Benner 36:53
When you when you do upgrade to another sensor, when g seven comes out, is all the other. The pumps that now are incorporating g seven in their algorithms like on the pot horizon or control like you, that's all taken care of.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 37:09
So here's how this, this will work. g they're all up there, all with G six, right now, with G seven having an ICBM level, they will integrate with G seven, but we have changed the electronics in the interface of G seven from g7. For example, we've added heightened cybersecurity to the g7 chip, because it's available now. And that's a very big concern of everybody out there. And so they will have to do some more work to integrate, they won't have to run a study. But we'll work with our partners. In fact, we're working with them now giving them access to g7. Saying, here, let's start building this today. So there will be some lag, I hope it's not more than six months, but put a look at a six month window because they will have to file and just say, Hey, we're working with this and get approval, no additional clinical studies if we're an IC jam. And I think that's where the FDA has been very helpful. And we've tried to be cognizant, I mean, and I go back in time, the way our transmitter works with the phone and sends you the number, it doesn't send you just a bunch of electronic goopy goop that you figure out some glucose value. This is very easy to integrate. And we we built it for that integration was one of the primary considerations we had when we went from the g4 to the G five platform. So it we're trying to ensure this, we know how to do it, we've worked with several partners. Now we don't have all the offerings that we'd like to have, but we're gonna do and I think and there's other ways to do it as well. app to app can work, which is one way that people are doing it. I like it best when the data is embedded together. But over time, you'll see a number of different options here.

Scott Benner 38:53
Yeah, I think the fear gets in people. And I don't even know why because I Arden has you know, we have an integrated system that Arden's using, and it's terrific with G six, I hope it will be even better with G seven. But if you if you drop g seven today and said here it is, and I had to wait six months for it, it wouldn't okay. Yeah, I don't think much would change for us to be perfectly honest. That's the fear

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 39:16
and and you know, it really doesn't. And it's in the past, it was a big deal. Because, again, that hardware those receivers in those transmitters people spend so much money on them when you dropped a new sensor and they didn't want to give it up. And I'll be honest with you, we still have some we shut g five down earlier this year, we still have some g five patients who send us letters saying how could you possibly

Unknown Speaker 39:41
take this from G five?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 39:43
So yes, but g six is going to be around for a while to support the integrations and and geographically we while we want to have a lot of capacity on the go, we can flip the entire switch and we have capacity to build 10s of millions of G sixes. There's no need to we'll make unavailable for some period of time. But what the beauty of G seven is you don't have to buy another transmitter, you'll be able to switch over the day is compatible because the transmitters built in and go pick up a couple sensors and go

Scott Benner 40:12
that opens you up to the question that you answer all the time. But I just for people who are listening new, direct to watch Apple Watch connectivity, that's going to wait till g7, right? That's

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 40:24
it is in the electronics configuration and g7 is just much better suited for this. It's better suited to communicate with multiple devices. You know, if you think about, about the devices that you have that have Bluetooth, how many of them talk to four or five things at the same time? Well, that's what people want us to do. And we've engineered it to talk to multiple, multiple devices at the same time. But that's hard, you know, your earphones, talk to one, your phone talks in your car, but you might lose something else. I mean, Bluetooth is evolving and becoming more sophisticated. But it's just it's something that we're very cognizant of, I think more cognizant than anybody else in the marketplace? Well,

Scott Benner 41:04
I have to say that people's misunderstanding about how the technology works, was never more evident than today. When somebody and I won't use their name, obviously, I don't want to embarrass them asked if you could add a Bluetooth extender to it. And I was like, how would that even work? Would you bolt it to like what I wear it on my shoulder? Would it be a little antenna off my ear and it's just somebody who just desperately wants the Bluetooth range to be longer, you know?

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 41:25
Well, and hopefully we'll have great range with the g7 and I I do have my next call Scott. It's always a pleasure to talk to Jake about all the technical things have him back on the show.

Scott Benner 41:35
He'll be great. All right, Kevin, thanks so much for being here. Hey,

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 41:38
it's great to have a great holiday

Scott Benner 41:39
YouTube. Merry Christmas.

Kevin Sayer, Dexcom CEO 41:40
Merry Christmas.

Unknown Speaker 41:42
Oh by

Scott Benner 41:44
a huge thanks to Kevin and Dexcom for coming back on the show. Thanks also to Omni pod for being a sponsor. You can find out more about the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump and even get yourself a free no obligation demo pod sent right to you by going to my Omni pod comm forward slash juice box. Learn more about the Dexcom je six and get started@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. And of course touched by type one can be found at Facebook, Instagram, and it touched by type one.org. If you're interested in watching my blood sugar, and it's between December 10 and December 20 2020, head over to Juicebox podcast.com forward slash CGM live. And if it's not in between those dates, check it out anyway, you might catch someone else sharing their blood sugars. At the very least there'll be an announcement of when the next blood sugar is going to be

Unknown Speaker 42:44
live

Scott Benner 42:46
Juicebox podcast.com forward slash CGM live. And if you'd like to see video and pictures of the Dexcom g7 the videos really cool. Go to Juicebox podcast.com. forward slash Dexcom g seven d x c o m g and then number seven Juicebox podcast.com. forward slash Dexcom g7 to see those pictures and video, grab them up, take them for yourself, make them into a wallpaper that you can stare at until the Dexcom g7 comes out. Thanks so much for listening to the Juicebox Podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please tell a friend show them how to subscribe. And if you're not subscribed, what are you doing? Hit the subscribe button. If you're listening online, you know there are podcast apps everywhere. They're very free. It's easy to get this show. There are links all over Juicebox Podcast comm to get yourself a podcast player that is free and compatible with your phone. And if you're here just for Kevin, there's a lot going on in this show. As a matter of fact, if you have type one diabetes, I implore you to check out my diabetes pro tip series that begin at Episode 210 diabetes pro tip newly diagnosed, we're starting over I think it would add a ton of clarity to your life. And if this is your first time listening to a podcast, you can also find those episodes at diabetes pro tip.com. Thank you very much for listening, for subscribing, for sharing. I'll be back very soon with the next episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Actually, somebody from NASA is gonna be here next time. What do you think of that?