Medtronic has announced that it will acquire long-time partner Nutrino, an AI powered personalized nutrition platform for an undisclosed sum.
As part of the deal Medtronic will be integrating Nutrino’s AI-driven personalized insights and food database. The acquisition is set to specifically boost Medtronic’s offerings for people living with diabetes and offer the company’s predictive glycemic response algorithm, which will be integrated with Medtronic’s CGM system.
"Bringing Nutrino and their nutrition-related expertise into our organization will give us a substantial differentiator in the diabetes industry and accelerate our progress to help people with diabetes live with greater freedom and better health," Hooman Hakami, executive vice president and president of the Diabetes Group at Medtronic, said in a statement. "The Nutrino team has been an outstanding partner over the past few years. We are excited to welcome them to our team, and I have no doubt that, together, we will make a profound impact on the lives of people with diabetes.”
The two companies have a long history of partnerships. In June the companies inked a deal to integrate Nutrino’s FoodPrint Report technology, which lets users see how their bodies react to different foods and connection between meal and glucose variability, into Medtronic’s iPro2 myLog app.
The companies first started working together in 2016 when they announced that patients who use both Nutrino's app and Medtronic's MiniMed Connect system to connect their CGM and insulin pump to their smartphones will be able to pull data from Medtronic devices into Nutrino and put that data in context with their food data.
The deal is expected to close by the end of January 2019.
Why it matters
Experts agree that healthy eating habits are essential to managing diabetes. Patients often have to manage food, calorie, and carbohydrate intake. The latest news means that Medtronic will be able to offer its customers Nutrino’s AI glycemic response algorithm, which helps predict how a users body will react to different meals. Medtronic will also be able to integrate Nutrino’s FoodPrint technology, which helps people living with diabetes understand their own body and relationship to food.
The trend
In an interview with MobiHealthNews in 2015 Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak said the company would focus on smaller acquisitions, as well as, growing its diabetes business. It’s acquisitions include Corventis, a peel-and-stick wearable heart monitor company, and Diabeter, a Dutch diabetes focused clinical research center.
Meanwhile, Medtronic’s competitor Dexcom recently acquired TypeZero, a technology known for its expertise in insulin delivery advisory algorithms, in August.
This isn't the first time Medtronic has turned to an AI-powered app to help offer nutritional guidance to people with diabetes. Sugar.IQ, the company's partnership with IBM Watson, plays in a similar space.
On the record
"The Nutrino team is passionate about personalized nutrition data services and technologies. Our work in the diabetes space is helping to address the needs of a growing population that needs better tools and guidance," Yael Glassman, CEO of Nutrino Health, said in a statement. "We are excited to now focus completely on the intersection of nutrition and diabetes to help more people be able to better manage their condition."
