Medtronic secures $337m from Blackstone to develop diabetes technologies

Irish medical device company Medtronic has secured a $337 million product investment from Blackstone Life Sciences for advancing new, innovative products particularly designed to ease the burden of diabetes management.

Through the new capital, Medtronic intends to increase research and development (R&D) funding in its diabetes group by a significant extent besides accelerating its diabetes pump and CGM technology pipeline.

Sean Salmon – Medtronic diabetes group executive vice president and president said: “This investment is important for people living with diabetes, as we expect it will expand our offering of future insulin delivery and sensor innovations that have the potential to improve patients’ management of their diabetes.

“Over the past 12 months, Medtronic has significantly increased its investment in Diabetes R&D, including investments in a series of near-term programs such as the MiniMed 780G insulin pump system, our Personalized Closed Loop (PCL) system, our extended wear infusion set, and our Zeus and Synergy sensors. The added investment from Blackstone empowers us to pull forward specific programs in our pump and CGM pipeline that aim to address unmet patient needs, beyond PCL and Synergy.”

Medtronic secures $337m from Blackstone to develop diabetes technologies. Photo courtesy of Blackstone Life Sciences.

As per the agreement terms, Medtronic will get up to $337 million in funding over the next several years to fund four identified diabetes R&D programs. The Irish medical device company said that it is not revealing the specific development programs for competitive reasons.

Medtronic said that its engineering, clinical, and regulatory teams will undertake the development work to activate the R&D programs. If commercialized successfully, the Irish medical device company will pay royalties which are likely to be in the low- to mid-single digit range as a percentage of sales.

Nicholas Galakatos – global head of Blackstone Life Sciences said: “This collaboration, our first investment in the medical devices space, demonstrates how Blackstone Life Sciences is using its capital and expertise to help bring vital technologies, with the potential to save lives, to patients who need them.

“We look forward to partnering with Medtronic, the leader in this space, to advance their next generation of innovative medical devices for diabetes patients.”