Dive Brief:
- MiniMed has begun the European Union rollout of continuous glucose monitors manufactured under its collaboration with Abbott.
- The company, which disclosed the launch Tuesday, received a CE mark for its Abbott-made Instinct sensor days after spinning out of Medtronic in March.
- Launching Instinct in the EU opens up the MiniMed 780G pump to more than 4.5 million Abbott sensor users on insulin-intensive therapy, CEO Que Dallara said on an earnings call this month.
Dive Insight:
MiniMed benefited from U.S. launches of Instinct and its internal CGM, Simplera, in the second half of its financial year, which ended April 24. New sensors were “a meaningful driver throughout the entire second half,” Dallara said. As well as fueling 18.2% CGM growth year over year, the sensors are bringing new patients to MiniMed, Dallara said. U.S. pump sales returned to growth after the CGM launches.
The EU rollout positions MiniMed to try to replicate the uptick overseas. MiniMed will roll the sensor out gradually starting this month. Launching Instinct in the EU will enable MiniMed to pitch its 780G insulin pump to millions of Abbott sensor users who it has been unable to reach until now, Dallara said.
MiniMed already offers the pump with its own Simplera CGM sensor. Instinct is a 15-day sensor, versus seven days for Simplera. Some people prefer Simplera because the seven-day duration lines up with their infusion sets, Dallara said, while other patients favor Instinct’s longer wear.
The Simplera launch was “on a bit of an allocation strategy, which I think muted a bit of the ‘new pump sold’ metric in Europe, just really managing the installed base trying to keep everybody happy,” Dallara said. With Instinct launching and Simplera supply unconstrained, Dallara expects “the critical metric of new pumps sold to continue to grow” in Europe.
Overseas sales are central to MiniMed’s business. International markets accounted for 70% of MiniMed’s reported net sales in the company’s 2026 financial year. At 20.6%, reported sales growth internationally outpaced the 1.5% increase achieved in the U.S.
Simplera has a lower gross margin than Instinct, MiniMed CFO Chad Spooner said on the earnings call, “but it doesn't mean that we have a preference toward one versus the other.” The strategy is to allow people to choose the sensor that best fits their lifestyle.
