#806 Dexcom G7 Approved By FDA (with Dexcom COO Jake Leach)
Scott Benner
Dexcom COO Jake Leach is here to talk about the FDA approval of the Dexcom G7.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 806 of the Juicebox Podcast.
What we have here is a bit of a Christmas miracle it seems. On December 8 2022, just yesterday, the FDA announced approval for the Dexcom G seven. And so of course, I have Jake leach here today to tell you all about it. Jake is the Chief Operating Officer at Dexcom. But more importantly, he's worked there for nearly 20 years, and his understanding of all things Dexcom is fascinating. I mentioned at the end of the episode when Jake and I finished talking, but I'm throwing questions at him from like, accuracy. You know, when's it gonna be available? How did you make this? What do you plan on doing about that? And Jake, just man, he just has the answers. Absolutely fantastic. It's a great conversation is only 30 minutes long. But it's a ton of questions that came right from you, the listeners a few of my own, and all of Jake's answers. So settle in, and enjoy. While you're listening. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
If you're new to the podcast and you don't know anything about it, you should hit subscribe in your favorite audio app, Spotify, Apple podcasts, Amazon music, wherever you get your shows, follow or subscribe. The Juicebox Podcast puts up new content four times a week, Monday through Thursday, you'll hear interviews with an adult living with type one, or a parent of a child who has type one. And we talked about all kinds of stuff. For instance, there's an entire series of after dark episodes where we talk about topics that most people don't talk about. There's ask Scott and Jenny where I and Jenny Smith CDE, who has had type one diabetes for 34 years answer your questions. We have entire episodes about algorithm pumping on the pod five control, IQ and looping. There's the bold beginning series for people who are just starting out with type one diabetes. And all of the questions and topics were suggested by listeners of the show when they were asked, What do you wish you would have known in the beginning, there's the defining diabetes series, which is just every conceivable phrase and term that you'll use with type one explained in short, fun, understandable episodes, we define thyroid issues in the defining thyroid series. Talk about the different variables that impact your blood sugar's than life. In the diabetes variable series. There's an entire mental wellness series and heard about it. I wouldn't be surprised that diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast, I could explain to you what it is. But instead, I'll read you this. And then we'll get to Jake, and the Dexcom g7 excitement. This is from a listener. My son was diagnosed type one about five months ago, I have learned so much from just the pro tip shows, and I will be listening to all of the episodes. This podcast is amazing, both for the information and for the shared experiences from Scott and his guests. They make you feel less like you just got hit in the face with the shovel. And more like you can find a way to keep your loved ones happy and healthy. Check out the diabetes Pro Tip series at juicebox podcast.com. Go to the top in the menu where all the series I mentioned and much more are listed. Or you can go right into your audio app and search Juicebox Podcast pro tip. And they should all pop up right in front of you the first Pro Tip series. Is it episode 210. It's called newly diagnosed or starting over. Yesterday, I woke up to an email about g7 being approved by the FDA. It's a number of months. If I'm being fair. It's a lot of months since it was approved in Europe. That surprised me. Did it surprise you?
Jake Leach 4:21
Yeah, it did. Yeah, we anticipated those two review cycles to be similar in time. And so our goal was to launch the product globally around the same time but the approval in Europe came as expected and the FDA approval took a little longer than we anticipated. So it did yeah, it very happy to have it now very excited to get the product in users hands now but it it did take a little longer than expected.
Scott Benner 4:49
Okay. Can you tell me why? Like what the
Jake Leach 4:53
primary reason was we had to, we had a feature in there called silence All that we had to remove it's it's in the product, it's outside the US, but remove it from the US product. It's basically a feature that allows users to silence the alerts for up to six hours. You know, so that if they're in a situation where they understand this, basically, I got it, I don't need to be alerted by my CGM. At this point in time, I'm gonna, my glue is gonna be high for a while I know that it's low. Really just silence those audio alerts, the FDA wants to see a little bit more information before they get comfortable with that. So we basically had to take that out of the product. For the US for now, we intend to put it back in very quickly here, working with the FDA. But that was the reason why the review took a little longer, because we had to actually make that change and then respond to the FDA with the changes.
Scott Benner 5:47
Well, it's interesting that it's making a change responding with all that all the backroom stuff takes that many months to get accomplished. It's, it's really crazy. Alright, so why do you like that feature? Why did you want to add it.
Jake Leach 6:02
So it's a highly requested feature by users, because they while they love their alerts and alarms for glucose, and the other aspects of the product, they, they, when they understand their glucose is out of range, they don't always need to be reminded every 30 minutes. And so with some of the particularly the low alerts, it'll continually remind you even if you acknowledge it, pick, you can only acknowledge, acknowledge it, and it'll come back in 30 minutes. So that is the primary reason it's really strong user request. And so we are getting very good feedback about the feature outside the US. And like I said, we intend to bring it in as soon as we can.
Scott Benner 6:39
Okay. I'm gonna ask you to be paired to you. If there's anything you want to say before I hit you with a delusion of questions that people gave me to ask you. Do you have any app happy
Jake Leach 6:49
to answer all the questions, but just wanted to share in the excitement of the community, and you know, everyone who we now have, you know, g7 approved, we're working very quickly to get it out. Early 2023. And my say early means quite early. And we be on the heels of Medicare, the CMS recommendation for coverage for folks, Basal insulin, so not just intensive insulin anymore. So really a lot of expanded coverage for use of CGM. On top of that you see the g7 approval. So could be more exciting time. For Dexcom. And for the community in general,
Scott Benner 7:30
is the Medicare distinction, a first step to private insurance accepting those ideas?
Jake Leach 7:36
Yeah, absolutely. Usually Medicare leads. And then private insurance generally follows quite quickly after that. And so its expansion of CGM to many people who could benefit from it who weren't previously covered.
Scott Benner 7:49
It. Is that an early step towards getting type twos covered?
Jake Leach 7:53
Yeah, so that that Basal coverage is type two. You know, most folks on Basal insulin are type two as well as anybody would take to it there has hyperglycemia challenges. That's also part of the recommended recommendation from CMS to Medicare. So yeah, and then there's, there's still, as you mentioned, there's still a group of type two individuals who would not be covered by Medicare. But that's our next focus, we want to focus on how do we get coverage because we know CGM has clinical benefit in that population. And so do it basically generating the evidence that's required to show that to payers,
Scott Benner 8:30
in my mind, getting it on to type twos without forcing them to get into a situation where they have to use insulin makes a lot of like, health sense to me.
Jake Leach 8:39
Absolutely. And I think we're a years from that. Um, you know, nothing ever goes as fast as I want it to go. So, you know, I think there there's, you know, a lot of folks are you know, CGM, it's continuing to expand and there's a lot of folks are working through, you know, glucose programs, the level two program at United is an example of, you know, an insurer, basically taking CGM and using it strategically in their type two population, to generate better outcomes. And so there's, there's gonna be a lot more to come over the coming years here.
Scott Benner 9:12
It's exciting. I've been interviewing a lot of type twos lately, and all of their successes seem to come from when they start to think about their type two diabetes, like type one diabetes, and they start using insulin in targeted ways, and they have all these great improvements afterwards. So anyway, that's way off the track for for a conversation where I only have here for 30 minutes, but well ask the big questions that I imagine you know, everybody wants to know, right? When early 2023 That's great. Will you have will it be like a wide rollout or is it going to be one of those things where you know, like, three guys at Tesla drive in the car and nobody else has one?
Jake Leach 9:51
It is a great question because, you know, we, we often do limited launches to make sure we got every word comfortable with everything the support of the product, the product itself. But we had the opportunity to do that overseas in Europe. So we did a limited launch there. And then we moved into full launch. And so our US launch will be full launch. We don't intend to constrain it. We feel comfortable with the amount of product we have as as well as the timing. So it's basically going to or early 2023, it's going to be generally available.
Scott Benner 10:25
Do you think it will create more initial customer service needs? Or do you think that the ease of use might actually take back your your need for CSR coverage?
Jake Leach 10:36
What we're seeing with a g7 o u s, is that it definitely has resolved a number of the things that we experienced with the G six launch that needed support. Any new product generally requires some level of new education. And so we were ready for you know, we have the support, we've done this is the seventh time we've done a product launch each one's bigger, but we learn every time we do it. And so we learned quite a bit from our G six launch about the expectation and customers and the support needed. And so we'll be ready for for it. We've been handling the European launch quite well. And so we're we'll be ready for us.
Scott Benner 11:17
Alright, well G six transmitters can continue to be made. And do you have Is there a timeline for that not to happen are
Jake Leach 11:25
we basically will continue to supply we are planning capacity for G six will continue to supply that product until everyone has transitioned over to G seven, the the folks that are kind of some of the end customers that were waiting for compatibility with G seven, those folks will definitely we've always loved sensors and G six transmitters as needed for that tire group until everybody shifts over we do intend to roll out G seven faster than we did G six globally in terms of, you know, kind of upgrading everyone up to the g7 product and so, but we'll we'll continue to make GSX as long as we need.
Scott Benner 12:09
Sometimes I noticed when I asked people hey, if you have questions for Jake put them here, sometimes I noticed you see their fears in the questions. And some of the questions. I think, if they weren't afraid they wouldn't ask, but this is one that I think I'd like to cover anyway, I know the answer. And I have no idea what the answer is. But a person asks, every time I changed my my G six transmitter right now, I kind of have to go into my pump and tell it I've put on a new transmitter. And now they're hearing that the g7 every device they put on, it basically does its own transmission, and they're worried they're gonna have to go into the pump, but that's going to be automated, I imagine.
Jake Leach 12:45
So there's a couple of things there. So we'll start with the, with the pump. So one of the things, advancements with G seven is there's a four digit pairing code. And it's just numeric. It's not alphanumeric, so there's only four numbers that identify the transmitter you're trying to pair with. And so there's some sophisticated analytics under the hood there that make allow us to do that. Because clearly the identification number for the transmitter is quite a bit more than just four digits. But the pairing code is four digits. So with a pump, you have to you do have to enter in the four digits. But because that's a more frequent process, it'll be more easily accessible on the mobile phones, the actual applicator has a QR on it, that you can just quickly take a picture and it loads all that information into the into the display device
Scott Benner 13:39
processes is sort of it happens quickly during it. But it's not some great thing where I'm scrolling through screens and that kind of No,
Jake Leach 13:46
it's designed, it's something that you have to do it. But it's very simple. And that's why we put made the pairing code we reduced it so that it would be even simpler for users. Cool.
Scott Benner 13:58
Well, people still be able to calibrate a g7 if they want to.
Jake Leach 14:01
Of course, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Is it that feature is still there, if you want to use it
Scott Benner 14:06
is the adhesive on g7 the same as the adhesive on G six.
Jake Leach 14:09
Now it's different. If you look at the patch, it may look very similar from the surface, but it's actually a new, new adhesive. That is we've seen in our early clinical studies as well as early performance outside the US that there's less irritation with with the sensor patch. For those, you know, the very, you know, it's a small group of folks that there are folks that do have, you know, patch rotation issues. And so we've seen a reduction in the number of that. And the occurrence rate.
Scott Benner 14:39
Is there any chance that this is the time you're going to tell me that it's going to work directly to an Apple Watch.
Jake Leach 14:47
Not not right out the gate, Scott, but it's not far off. We built it into the hardware, we finally have the capability to have that directly in the g7 hardware. And so it's going to be an app release that unlocks that feature
Scott Benner 15:01
makes me remember, you know, you might have context for this when I was young, Kevin Smith, the film director was like blowing up. And he used to have these little private film festivals. And every year, I'd go to one that he would hold. And there was a, you know, you'd say, Hello. When you get there, you start to know them after year after year, people recognize each other. And the last time I ever went to one, I shook his hand, and I said, Will you tell me when I'm too old to come to these? And he said, if you tell me when I'm too old to make these movies, and I just had that feeling in my head, like, you and I are like, you're on the edge of retirement. I've been making a podcast for 20 years. And I'm like, is it gonna work with the Apple Watch? I don't know why that popped into my head, or why wasted time with it. But it just delighted me just now what I was thinking about. Alright, so it's built into the architecture at this point? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Bluetooth architecture has been updated to include it. Do you expect that to happen with the g7? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. All right. What's happening to the apps? Right, now we're gonna get a new, like, will a g7 users gonna get a new app? But will the followers like what all is going to happen there?
Jake Leach 16:08
Yeah, so the g7 plugs seamlessly into the end of the architecture. So when a new when, for example, when the user basically upgrades from G six to G seven, they actually use their same G six username and password. They enter that into the g7. And all their data is still in there clarity, still links in so now G seven is just updating their data, it also moves over their settings. So similar to when you enter your past user name and password into a new G six app, it remembers your previous settings, G seven, does the same thing. So it makes it easier, easy for customers to transition over. And then the followers, clarity app, all of that just they work. You don't have to get a new one. It works with g7, will you be updating the follow up? We will we've So over the past couple of years, we've been kind of laser focused on rolling out G seven, basically getting it ready for global launch as well as our Dexcom. One product. So both of those are on this completely new software platform. So we've been spending a lot of time our teams have been focused on that. But as we were rolling, we've been rolling out Dexcom one g7 has now got our US launch coming in a few more rollouts globally, through the 2023. In early 2024. The team is going to be we're going to be able to focus a bunch of the resources on continued innovation in the both the follow space clarity, as well as the g7 and Dexcom. One app, so bringing more features to those. So you'll be seeing a more rapid cadence, we've built a lot of software capacities, you know, basically the capacity to develop software to be able to do both Dexcom one ng seven at the same time. And across the globe. So we get a lot of capacity we can unleash on new features.
Scott Benner 17:56
Give those people something new to do. So at launch, no delta, no rate of change.
Jake Leach 18:02
No rate of change at launch. Not yet. Not yet. But it's on the list
Scott Benner 18:06
on the list for the new app. Okay. Android as well, right? Android? Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. How? Where do you, it's just kind of gets away from G. Seven for a second. But it doesn't really open access for things like looping sugar, pixel glucose, stuff like that, is that you guys? Stay in the course on how you think about that?
Jake Leach 18:33
Yeah, I mean, we've always thought about it in terms of, we want to have as much accessibility as we can. And so that's the reason why we have our API's. It's the way we do our partnerships. So I think it's, you know, we, we've always kind of embraced the community, the innovation in the community, and all of the great stuff that's being done there. And so, you know, we walk a fine line between, you know, regulated devices, and in making sure that users get access to their data. So our philosophy there hasn't changed. So while new systems do, you know, things change with new systems, for in all kinds of different aspects, and so there'll be no work to do for compatibility for anything, but we definitely understand how important some of those systems are to people.
Scott Benner 19:22
I think every time you make some sort of an announcement about something, excuse me, it brings up anxiety for people who loop or, or something like that, like they think like, is this going to be the time I wake up and it just doesn't work anymore? So it's nice to hear. Accuracy stuff first. 24 hours? Same better different than G six.
Jake Leach 19:42
Yeah, it's, it's, it's a little better. You know, it's still the lat the first day is, while good, the days after that are even better, in particular with the seven with the 8.2% Ameri D in the ice CGM. US study that's, you know, most most accurate I CGM data ever produced so we are very excited about that and so G seven is you know it's it's based it's based in the technology that we've been working with with G six and other generations but we've made quite a few enhancements both to the sensor probe and as well as the glucose algorithm
Scott Benner 20:22
that mark number is that just for arm where is that anywhere that it's okay to where
Jake Leach 20:27
it's arm, its arm where so it's 8.2% and adults 8.1% arm were in in peds. And then with peds, we also have the upper buttock location indicated.
Scott Benner 20:41
Okay, how about somebody is asking me about accuracy at higher numbers when people are fighting with high blood sugars. Do you see any improvement there? I guess I should just ask you how you see this as an improvement over GSX? Really?
Jake Leach 20:55
Yeah, it's what it really is, is it's all about even more consistent sensors, right? When you look at a population of sensors, in a clinical study, you know, it's not like every single one has an MA or d of eight, you get some with, you know, Emiratis have four and some of the you know, in a particular individual or particular sensor, you want to get to be, you know, a little bit higher than that. So, what we're seeing with G seven is there's less outliers, it's more it's a tighter distribution of performance. And so that's one of the things that really helps drive down overall system performance. Because the M or D number you see is it's a average across a an entire clinical study.
Scott Benner 21:33
So if I said to you just do a clinical study of day three today, eight, you'd see a better number than me making you put in my entire 10 day where yeah, of course, yeah, that's how
Jake Leach 21:45
people game CGM systems, right you do. You do a clinical study and don't do any data on day one, or you don't do any hypoglycemia data. I mean, there's there's all kinds of ways to game clinical studies, the ice CGM criteria that the FDA said basically specifies exactly how you're supposed to run your clinical study, which is why it's a rigorous standard.
Scott Benner 22:05
My buddy's a good guy, if you don't think about the fact that he takes our wallets when we're together. Have a look at the whole picture. All right. Out of pocket costs, is it going to be similar to G six. So this episode doesn't have any ads on it, because it came up rather quickly. You know, the Dexcom G seven announcement was yesterday came out of nowhere. I wanted to get this episode with Jacob for you right now. And I've already I've already done all the ads I need to do this week. So I don't have any left. But I do want to just take a second to acknowledge that I'm able to make this podcast and on a Friday afternoon, surprise recorded episode with Jake leach from Dex calm and get it right online for you. Because this podcast is my job. And it can be my job because of the sponsors. They keep they keep the whole thing going, they keep the lights on they helped me pay my bills. And I want to give them a second because it's the end of the year. And we've had we have a lot of great sponsors. And I want to take a moment to thank them for their sponsorship in 2022. And to thank the ones who were staying with me for 2023 and they are on the pod makers of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump and that Omni pod five automated system, you can learn more about it at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Of course Dexcom is a sponsor dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Another sponsor of the show is the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. My daughter has been carrying this meter forever. It's absolutely terrific, incredibly accurate, and you can learn more about it at contour next one.com forward slash juice box. If you want to use the glucagon that my daughter carries, you can get ge vogue at GE Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box check out that GE Vogue hypo pen. US med is where we get our diabetes supplies us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 They carry all the latest supplies, but check them out. And last but not least touched by type one is a beautiful organization supporting the dreams of people with type one diabetes at touched by type one.org. I'd also like to take a moment to thank in pen from Medtronic diabetes for their support in 2022. They won't be back in 2023. But that's okay. They were a great great supporter of the show in 2022. And one of the reasons why you were able to get the show so plentifully and for free, and while I'm thanking people, I have a new sponsor in 2023 athletic greens. If you're looking for that AG one from athletic greens, a green drink that actually tastes good, athletic greens.com forward slash juice box, there are links in the show notes of the podcast players you're listening in right now, and links at juicebox podcast.com, to all of the sponsors, and they're not a sponsor. But if you go to the T, one D exchange AT T, one D exchange.org, forward slash juice box, join their registry and fill out their survey, you'll be supporting people with type one diabetes, and helping to move diabetes research forward, you also end up supporting the show by completing the survey. So they're not quite a sponsor, but you are supporting the show when you complete the survey. I want to say again, that this podcast is it's a full time job, it is a ton of work. And without ad support, this would not be my job. And today, you would not be hearing this information. And I'm very grateful for the people who support the show. And for the people who support the sponsors, if you have the need. And I have the advertiser, I hope you use my link, because it's actually a huge help. Let's get back to Jake.
Out of pocket costs, is it going to be similar to G six?
Jake Leach 26:22
Yeah. So yeah, basically out of pocket cost coverage? So that's a really good question, Scott. So we anticipate a GS six ng seven will be very similar. In the beginning, though, when you launch a new product coverage is, you know, some there will be some coverage. And then it continues to build over time. And so we've the second we've got approval, we can now start kind of finalizing all of those agreements with payers, Medicare appeals. And so what we we do intend, though, even at time of launch to have some very accessible cash pay options for people whose coverage hasn't quite kicked in there, they can stand at six for, you know, until they have their g7 coverage, or they can switch right over and we'll have some, like I said, very accessible cash paid pricing for them.
Scott Benner 27:07
Can people still soak their sensors with g7? Define soak, they want to put them on and wear them for a few hours before they start them?
Jake Leach 27:17
Yeah, yeah. Now you could do well actually on to be real precise their ID, you can insert a g7 sensor. What happens is though, the second you insert it, it starts the sensor session. So all of that information is being recorded on the display device, or I mean, on the g7 itself. And so you know, it has the 30 minute warmup time, as soon as 30 minutes goes by, after insertion, it's going to start calculating and saving data. When you pair it to it. It'll be up and running.
Scott Benner 27:46
But if some so if I'm wearing one now, and I and I say this one, I don't know it's done in six hours. I want to put this one on now and let it soak. But as soon as I do that, do I lose the first one I'm wearing? Or I can just decide to just watch the first one while they are just losing the life of the second one during that. Yeah, exactly.
Jake Leach 28:07
That's it. Yeah, use the none of the devices, whether it's an insulin pump, or zebra or phone, they don't talk to to CGM to, you know, she says the same time you said you have to you have to switch over. When you're ready to the other one, it's just it's more around the unique feature ng seven as the auto start the second you deploy, it starts session, which is great, because I've talked to customers who would insert sensors and then forget to start their session and then realize, Oh, now I started, I have to wait two hours before I have data. So the g7 is much faster.
Scott Benner 28:38
I've not pushed that button once or twice. Will is this gonna be a pharmacy a DME? Both just one? Oh, yeah, we
Jake Leach 28:46
have customers that get product through different channels, you know, vast majority of get product through the pharmacy. And so we'll continue to push that. But we also support DME for for Medicare and for men and for others.
Scott Benner 28:59
If I'm in a household where multiple people have type one diabetes, can I follow a G seven and a G six on the follow up at the same time? Yes, you can. Excellent. See how easy this is tick. I can't believe people are so kind like just yesterday, I was like give me questions. I have enough questions here. We could make a training manual for everyone. So can alarms be silent for certain durations of times? That's going to be a no right now. Right?
Jake Leach 29:24
Right. It's basically the ability to sounds Alerts is just like GS six, but we are we do want to bring that feature. It's on the short list of things to put into the US product. We're working closely with FDA to get them comfortable with it and then we'll get it out very quickly.
Scott Benner 29:40
Your new readings every five minutes. Do you ever consider doing it? With I mean every minute or why is it every five minutes I guess.
Jake Leach 29:51
It's basically it's kind of a it's a balance of a lot of things like like almost any kind of engineering design project. There's a you're balancing multiple things So the system measures glucose continuously all the time, it's not like every five minutes, it takes a measurement, it's measuring the entire time you're wearing the sensor, it's just every five minutes is when the glucose reading is communicated between the wearable and the display devices. And so that's kind of a balance of, you know, battery power. As well as you know, the frequency of glucose change all of those things around five minutes, you know, we've we've contemplated doing it more frequently, but we haven't found a specific use case, where it's, it makes sense to do that, and change the way the whole system works. But it is something that we've, you know, we've talked about in the past, but five minutes, we feel pretty comfortable with it, you know, and with the extremely minimal lag time of the sensors. Now, it's it's much less of an issue than it was, you know, years ago when it took quite a while to see the glucose change in your CGM after you made a treatment.
Scott Benner 30:56
Right. So as time goes on that kind of adage of like, the next column is showing you something that happened in the past. It's becoming less and less of the past really. Yeah, yeah. A piggy back to that question. On the follow up, it'll tell you basically, it's been three minutes since the since the number changed. And I know for parents, like sometimes you lay in bed going Okay, one more minute. Let me just refresh this app one more time. Will you ever put that countdown on the user's app?
Jake Leach 31:26
Ah, that's a good. That's an interesting idea. Well, I don't know if our team has contemplated that. But basically add, so the user knows when that things come on. Yeah, it's a Yeah. Because when you I guess, when you're sitting there, you've made a treatment. And you're basically trying to see the glucose change. I understand. Yeah, exploring a
Scott Benner 31:45
low blood sugar when you're sort of like, yeah, tests do I drink? Do I eat like that kind of thing? What's the Bluetooth range from the g7? To the phone? Is that the phone?
Jake Leach 31:56
Yeah, it's the same as G six. Yeah, it? You know, it depends a lot on the, you know, the environment that you're in and how the distance, right? It's really good when it's just like, line of sight, you can get, you know, well north of 10 feet. But, you know, in crowded environments, it's less that, but it's the same as G six.
Scott Benner 32:14
Since it's been out already in Europe. Are you already working on things that you've seen? Like, have you? Are you making adjustments on what you're learning already? Yeah.
Jake Leach 32:26
Yeah, we've, we've got quite a few. I mean, many of the, you know, with any product, you do an initial launch, and you're always improving it, you're learning things about, you know, the way it's manufactured, you learn ways, but the way it performs. We haven't seen any surprises in the US launch in terms of product performance. And we have we have a number of updates, that will be cutting it over time that will basically be invisible to users. But you know, continuing to improve reliability. And, you know, just meeting all the needs of users. So yeah, I'd say the most exciting thing we've learned from our LRS launches that more than half of the customers are brand new to Dexcom. So they haven't, they're not just upgrading from G six G seven, they're actually new users coming in to Dexcom family. So it really helps us. You know, reiterate the fact that G seven is a really good platform for expanding the use of CGM.
Scott Benner 33:20
Is there been any change on compression lows? Do you see fewer with the new design?
Jake Leach 33:27
Um, you know, we haven't done a study that compares that exactly. But what one of the things that I've talked to folks about that of Warren G seven, as well as kind of experience myself as the size of g7 allows you to move it around a little bit more in terms of the locations where you can wear it. And that seems to be the best way to avoid compression laws is to find a place that you aren't compressing as often. Yeah, we're gonna for myself, it's I went up on the top of my upper arm that tends to help me
Scott Benner 33:57
okay. Okay, so Canada, Australia, this year, not not 2022. But do you see them in 2023? Having g7?
Jake Leach 34:07
Yep, very, very likely. They're both of those are their, you know, their approval processes, right? Regulatory submissions. g7 is already in New Zealand, and so open to bring it Australia soon. So yeah, I mean, we're, the vast majority of the countries will switch over to g7 in 2023. And then there's a few of the longer regulatory cycles that will take us into early 24.
Scott Benner 34:31
So somebody asked this question, what, it's the internet. So I don't know. I hadn't heard this. But are you seeing any lost connection data on g7 in Europe, to the point where you think of it as a problem?
Jake Leach 34:44
No, no, I think it's similar to G six, it can happen. And we actually do have technologies in our pipeline that we've been working on, that we implemented on G six some of it and we're also looking to do it on G seven to even further enhance the Bluetooth range and capabilities. But I think one of the things with a new product anytime you experienced something, it's like, oh, is it the new product that's causing that? So? It's no, it's definitely not a problem. But we do something that we are striving to improve it always.
Scott Benner 35:15
Yeah, I never know the difference between like, something someone heard, and now they're asking, and you know, I'm pretty clued into this space. And I was like, I hadn't heard that. So I think it's obvious I saved the big questions for the end. And so here they are. I know this isn't your company, and but you're gonna have as much insight to it right now is anybody that I have access to talk to on this day? So how soon until people who have just decided I want to use on the pod five or people who using control like whew, like when they're they're all at home, like looking at their sensors, trying to decide like Toyota or G six one more time? Like, how soon do you expect those companies? I mean, you guys must have conversations about it. Right? Like, when is February to work with that stuff? Yeah, we work
Jake Leach 36:02
super close with those partners, to ensure that the g7 is the integration goes smoothly. So they've both both tandem and solid. And our other partners have been working on the g7 integration for quite a while because the technology has been around. And so they, you know, when it comes to actually launching those upgrades for users, it's really, they're in control of the timing there. Now that we have the FDA approval for use with AI D. It's really around them doing their upgrades. I think their public comments, a tandem, I think is talked about middle of 23. So that's not too long after we launch, and then I think insulates a little they're a little bit farther behind that. So but they they've made and they continually update their public comments around when they'll have that compatibility. But the trust me they're working very diligently on getting those those systems upgraded.
Scott Benner 36:53
I wouldn't imagine that they're taking their time. Jake, I have to tell you, I know we're going your institutional knowledge of Dexcom is it's incredible. Like I just out of order. We I didn't send you these questions. I'm rattling things off. I'm jumping from topic to topic. And you're like that, yeah, this this that? Yeah, like, it's very impressive. So please, please work there for as at least as long as I have this podcast. Because this was very easy and just full of information. And I'm gonna pat myself on the back for getting through that many questions in 30 minutes, because I feel like my head is spinning down like, look, I'm watching this list window in front of me. And I'm like, No, don't ask that as this one. That's that one. So anyway, I congratulations for me. And for everybody listening, everybody said thank you. It's a big deal. We were all really excited yesterday. And you know what I'm, you know what, you know, what people are gonna want you to do next go make Dexcom GA right now, Jake, you can maybe take a couple of days off, but then we would like we're working on it. We'd like to see it as big as the head of a pin. And I'd like to be able to wear it on my watch. If you don't mind. Go ahead, get going.
Jake Leach 37:56
lots lots innovation still to come. We're not nearly done. So yeah, appreciate the time, Scott. It's been great. And I look forward to bringing g7 to us here very soon.
Scott Benner 38:07
You guys push this space forward in a way that just wasn't happening before. Dexcom. And I'm there. I've been around this a long time. I'm never gonna forget, you know, when a new meter every three years seemed like a big deal. So thank you. Thank you very much. I hope you have a great night. Appreciate it. Thanks,
Jake Leach 38:23
Guy Garth. Yeah.
Scott Benner 38:30
Well, I'd like to thank Jake for coming on the show so soon after the announcement. And of course, thank all the people who listen to the podcast for the great questions. How did I get them? You might be wondering, well, I got them. In my private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes. on Facebook. It's a private group with over 32,000 people in it. People who live with type one diabetes, type two their parents of people with type one, they have type one themselves. The gamut is run in there. You don't even you don't even have to say anything to learn in that group. It's amazing. Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. Thank you all for the great questions. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you check out some others. Tell a friend share this episode with people. There's a Share button in your podcast app or you can if you're listening online, send somebody the link. When you share the show, you're helping it to grow. And the truth is that's that's the crazy best part of this whole thing is you guys and how supportive you are. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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