Accessing Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Sensors in France and the US

Blood sugar monitoring is at the heart of every type one diabetic’s treatment. Because patients need make 500,000 decisions over a lifetime on average, reliability on monitoring devices is vital. Thus, the development of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems came as a revolution, as patients need not prick their fingers anymore and now have access to previously unavailable blood sugar trends. This note uses Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre (FSL) as a CGM case study comparing the patenting strategies, regulatory and pricing obstacles this biotechnology company had to face to market its product in both France and the United States.