It's the end of a dynasty in the traditional market for self blood glucose testing--the test strips and hand-held monitors that patients have been using as the mainstay of their diabetes management. The four major companies, Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan Inc., Abbott Laboratories Inc., Roche, and Bayer AG's Bayer HealthCare AG, once differentiated players in a high growth market, have cut R&D and marketing budgets in the face of increasing commoditization. One of the most telling signs of that commoditization: giant retailer WalMart ("Save Money. Live Better.") already sells its own brand of meters and test strips, ReliOn, which sells for less than half the cost of competitors, and is heading toward a "one price fits all" strategy.
But a new era in continuous glucose monitoring has begun, according to Chris O'Donnell, SVP and president of the diabetes...