Ambrosia Systems Is Designing an Affordable Non-Invasive CGM for Low-Resource Settings
Founder Piyush Gupta is building on his medical device experience at Abbott to design a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that’s financially accessible for all people with diabetes. They’ve gotten their real-time CGM below $1000 per year and have an ambitious long-term goal of getting that price down to $100.
Investors, learn how you can back Health Transformers like Piyush Gupta.
Challenge
“People with diabetes are everywhere,” says Piyush Gupta, CEO & Founder of Ambrosia Systems. Yet, as he points out, companies providing products for people with diabetes focus on only 50 or 60 countries. With his eye on the global situation, Gupta is taking steps for his company’s product to reach all 192 countries.
Ambrosia is a platform for diabetes, metabolic health, and fitness management that connects a continuous glucose monitoring device (CGM) to a smart watch or phone, allowing for real-time reading updates, alarms, remote monitoring, and food insights. The company knows that making the product universally accessible is reliant upon cost. “Whoever has diabetes and whoever needs this product, should be able to afford it,” says Gupta. “That’s our aim.” To date, they have managed to bring down the costs of real-time CGM below $1,000 per year, per patient. But they have more ambitious goals: “Our aim is to build a real-time CGM for less than $100 per year, per patient,” says Gupta.
Origin Story
When Gupta’s wife became pregnant and developed gestational diabetes, he became acutely aware of the challenges of monitoring one’s diabetes through conventional means. “Every time you eat something, you need to poke your finger to draw your blood,” says Gupta. “When somebody is pregnant, their skin is very sensitive. It was a very painful experience for my wife. She was crying and pregnant and I was not able to do anything,” says Gupta.
Although he couldn’t do anything at that moment, he soon began formulating a plan for a more user-friendly and widely-accessible CGM device. At the time he was working for Abbot, a medical device company active in developing products for diabetes care. There another problem had come to his attention: parents reaching out looking for products to help monitor their children’s diabetes. Although CGM products were on the market, their cost was prohibitive to many. Additionally, the technology that took readings from a patch on one’s body only provided real-time reporting on smartphones. This solution didn’t work for children. “For five- or six-year-old kids with Type 1 diabetes, carrying a phone to school or the playground is not possible,” says Gupta.
In 2016 Gupta quit his job and started Ambrosia. He wanted to remove smart phones from the equation and transmit data from the CGM device to smart watches, which could be worn by people — young and old — who couldn’t always be tethered to phones. It was a challenge that previous co-workers he had worked with deemed impossible. “Building NFC Bluetooth in such a small space was not possible at that time,” says Gupta.
How It Works
Ambrosia created BluCon, which allowed for the transmission of real-time glucose readings to watches without the requirement of a phone (although their mobile app can also be read on a phone or computer). “What we are doing with our real-time CGM technology is using a third party, like Abbott FreeStyle Libre sensors, as our input device, and then we have our own BluCon electronic device which picks the data from the sensor and transmits it over to a smartwatch and phone,” says Gupta.
BluCon, their flagship product, sets them apart from other companies, which are not able to transmit directly to watches. “Our product is more advanced than Dexcom or Abbott for that reason,” says Gupta. “They have to have the phone in between.”
So far, their product has proven useful for patients. “It is very convenient for kids to wear an Apple watch or Android watch and their parents can monitor their glucose levels remotely,” says Gupta. It’s also proven useful for elderly people, hearing impaired patients, and others looking for a simple product. “Once we started, everybody started using it because the whole user experience is so easy. The setup is so easy, and it’s so useful,” says Gupta.
The product — which is appropriate for people with pre-diabetes, Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes — allows users to see changes in glucose in real time, receive alarms, and observe how different foods are impacting their glucose levels. Its integration with other health apps also allows users to see how glucose is impacting their heartbeat and oxygen levels. Additionally, a web platform allows healthcare providers to observe this wide range of data from their patients.
Where They Are in the Process
Their product is currently being used around the world thanks to their innovative technology and relatively low price point. But they have bigger aims. “Our aim today is to build a real-time non-invasive CGM for less than $100 per year, per patient,” says Gupta. They hope to support more glucose sensors which will develop in the future and establish affordable and efficient distribution partners around the world to make this goal a reality. “We were able to bring down the cost from $6000 to $2000 and now, less than $1000. I’m sure in the near future we will be able to build something below $100.”
Our Take
“We noticed people who are using real-time CGM are able to manage their diabetes a lot better,” says Gupta. “When people use these products and then see how the foods they are eating are impacting their glucose levels in real time, they automatically cut down on that food. Nobody needs to tell them.”
This observation isn’t groundbreaking. The effectiveness of CGM devices is well known and well documented. What’s encouraging about Ambrosia is how they are taking existing CGM technology — and all the benefits that go along with it — and extending it to a wider range of people through their direct-to-watch technology and affordable price point. Younger people, older people, and the hearing impaired are all benefiting from their BluCon technology, which transmits straight to smart watches. Their price point promises to further expand CGM to people around the world for whom the service may have been previously out of reach. “Making expensive products is easy, making a product which people can afford is tough,” says Gupta. It’s this commitment to all people living with diabetes, in all countries, that sets Ambrosia apart and makes us excited to partner with them.
Join us in welcoming Piyush Gupta and his team at Ambrosia Systems to our global army of Health Transformers and our T1D Moonshot community.
→ Connect with Ambrosia via email
Call for T1D Innovation
Are you a scientist or innovator focused on T1D innovation who would benefit from education about how to navigate and build a company that will be successful in attracting mission-aligned capital, customers, and collaborators to pursue scientific discoveries in the field of Type 1 diabetes? Learn more and apply for a T1D Fellowship.
Become a Health Moonshot Champion
Health moonshots are fueled by passionate families, foundations, and industry organizations committed to achieving health moonshots. Learn how you can join other champions of the T1D Moonshot or one of our other global health moonshots.
Funders:Learn how you can become a Health Moonshot Champion and invest in Health Transformers.
Founders: Don’t make the journey alone. Learn how Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot.
Follow us on social media for daily updates on Health Transformers: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Published: Nov 30, 2023