New Partnership Could Bring Medtronic $17 Million for Artificial Pancreas Technology

The Fridley-based medical device firm  announced a partnership today that could give it up to $17 million, over three years, in research funding for artificial pancreas technology, the Pioneer Press is reporting.

Medtronic will partner with two non-profits to bring better functioning glucose monitor devices to the market.

The Pioneer Press has more:

The money will come from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Helmsley Charitable Trust, which are collaborating on an initiative to improve sensors. Sensors in continuous glucose monitors such as those sold by Medtronic help patients with diabetes know when their blood sugar levels are high or low.

With the glucose readings, patients can manage their intake of sugar or insulin accordingly. The goal of artificial pancreas systems is to create a "closed-loop" device that links glucose monitors and insulin pumps so that the technology automatically delivers insulin in most cases.

"Accurate and reliable sensor technology has long been identified as a necessity for the realization of an artificial pancreas," said Jeffrey Brewer, the research foundation's president, in a news release. "Medtronic's development of an orthogonally redundant sensor system will greatly accelerate this path."