MiniMed 670G, a device developed by Medtronic, Inc. that’s closest to artificial pancreas, is about to be introduced into the US market. The device is made up of three parts: blood glucose sensor, insulin pump and injection module. When in use, MiniMed 670G continuously traces blood glucose level, and automatically releases insulin when necessary to free Type One diabetes mellitus patients from the trouble of having to manually inject insulin. Meanwhile, the injection module of the device helps patients manually supplement additional nutrition before meals.

It is reported that using this device will not cause severe side effects like diabetic ketoacidosis or hypoglycemia.

MiniMed 670G was approved by FDA last September. That was the first time such type of products had been approved. Having obtained the approval, Medtronic carried out a user training program in March to study the cases in which patients were actually using the device. The result of the program showed that patients who had used MiniMed 670G managed to maintain a healthy blood glucose level for 74% of the time. The overall satisfaction rate reached 94%.

As the first artificial pancreas product ever introduced into the US market, MiniMed 670G has become a leader in the market. However, competition is never something to be neglected. Omnipod Horizon, developed by Insulet, acquired positive data in clinic experiments. Like product from Bigfoot Biomedical is also under systematic research and development. Artificial pancreas iLet of Beta Bionics has entered into clinic phase as well. It not only supplements insulin, it also releases glucagon.