In the third episode of our Diabetes Technology Starts series, we talk with John Sjolund, co-founder of Luna Diabetes, about bringing nighttime automated insulin delivery to people who use pens, focusing on better mornings, fewer alarms, and simpler tech. We cover evidence so far, algorithm design, travel, Type 2 potential, cost, and environmental impact.
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David Klonoff (00:03):
Welcome to Diabetes Technology Report,
co-hosted by endocrinologistDavid Klonoff from UCSF and
David Kerr from Sutter Health.
Welcome to Diabetes TechnologyReport Starts.
I'm Dr.
David Klonoff.
I'm an endocrinologist in SanMateo, California.
I'm here with my fellow host,Dr.
(00:25):
David Kerr, who will introduceour interviewee today.
David.
David Kerr (00:30):
Thanks, David.
Hello, everyone.
I'm David Kerr.
I'm speaking to you from sunnySanta Barbara as usual.
And we have another personliving in the sunshine.
That's John Sjoland from Luna.
Welcome, John, to DiabetesTechnology Report Starts.
It's good to see you.
John Sjolund (00:47):
Great.
Dr.
Kerr, Dr.
Klonoff, thank you for havingme.
It's nice to see you guys.
Sun is shining.
So thank you.
David Kerr (00:53):
Excellent.
So we'd like to begin this byasking two simple questions.
Why are you interested indiabetes?
And from your company'sperspective, what is the
fundamental problem that you'retrying to solve?
John Sjolund (01:07):
So my interest in diabetes is very personal in
that I've had diabetes fornearly type 1 diabetes for
nearly 40 years myself.
I was diagnosed shortly beforemy fourth birthday and have been
living and managing and doingmy best to take care of it.
But only later in life, and notmy it wasn't my first career to
(01:29):
start developing products, butI did start developing products
for people like us with diabetesbecause I felt that technology
was not reaching the masses.
And I saw it as an obligationto take my skills and what I'd
learned in life to try to bringreally, really helpful and
useful products to more people.
And in terms of what we'redoing, so Luna is a product that
(01:55):
we created, which is aboutbringing the incredible and
awesome benefits of automatedinsulin delivery to pen users.
And we've always felt fordecades that people have been
asked to make a decision whetherto stay tethered and be
attached to a pump or to beexposed to nighttime
(02:15):
hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia atnight.
And there's been this all ornothing standard where the
majority of people who use pensfor one reason or another, all
users that use pens, which isthe majority of instant
delivery, aren't benefiting fromtechnology.
And we wanted to solve that.
And that's what we've done atLuna.
David Kerr (02:34):
So the aim is to do what?
To prevent hypoglycemia ormaintain a certain level of
control?
Or what's how what's successlook like if you start using
Luna?
John Sjolund (02:48):
So here's the thing, Dr.
Kerr.
Over 65% of type ones in the USuse pens.
And in Sweden, where I'm from,it's much higher.
The other key importantlearning that this the secret of
automated insulin delivery,whether it's tandem or Medtronic
or other products or insulate,is that they work really well at
(03:09):
nighttime.
Over 80% of the glucoseimprovement that happens over 24
hours happens at night.
And so when you're using pens,you're just you're going to bed
and hoping for the best.
On average, people spend 40% ofthe night at hyperglycemia.
They're waking up, they'resweaty, they're low.
So what we do is when you weara CGM and you wear our product,
(03:32):
which is the world's smallestpatch pump, we're automatically
giving you insulin if you needit to get you to wake up at
target.
And we're helping with yourbasal insulin dose if you need
it to avoid hypoglycemia.
So we're, we're, we're, we'regoing at it from both ends.
And we really about optimizingyour night so you wake up at
(03:53):
target.
David Klonoff (03:54):
John, what type of studies have you done to
demonstrate that your product iseffective?
John Sjolund (03:58):
Yeah, so the product is not yet cleared.
We're not on the market yetbecause we're still in the midst
of studies.
But we've run both safetystudies where you take a small
group, small groups of peoplewith type one and bring them to
a clinic where they're monitoredby safety staff.
They're checking.
Because of course, if youralgorithm goes haywire, it could
be very, very dangerous.
(04:19):
Um, that's all gotten a greenlight.
And we've also put it out intothe field where people bring it
home for 90 days.
They go about their normallife.
And uh yeah, we have you knownearly 2,000 nights of people
using it.
And we've learned a lot.
We've improved our product.
We're about to start a newround of studies and a big
pivotal study later this yearfor both type 1 and type 2
(04:41):
diabetes.
David Klonoff (04:42):
What type of algorithm are you using?
Where did it come from?
And uh what makes it effective?
Does it have any particularfeatures that other algorithms
don't have?
John Sjolund (04:53):
It's most powerful featured is that it doesn't
have any features.
So it this is something thatwe've developed here.
We have an incrediblyincredible data science and
algorithm team.
And what we're trying to do isbring automation to people that
already have their basal insulinon board, whether it's Lantis
(05:14):
or Togeo or whatever it is.
And that's a really hardautomation problem.
Our team and Lane Desbrough,who we all know, you know, when
we started this with Lane, wethought this was going to be an
easy thing.
If high, give insulin.
It wasn't, and it hasn't beenbecause people are
over-basalized orunder-basalized, their basal
(05:34):
needs change week to week, nightto night.
So our algorithm is aboutletting people do whatever they
need to manage their diabetes bythemselves during the day.
And then at nighttime, theautomation takes over.
And in the morning, you take itoff and you go back to pens and
do your normal day-to-dayroutine.
(05:55):
But this, the ability totransition people onto
automation each night and off inthe morning, and doing that in
a way where we're not askingthem when they last took their
bolus, what they eat, how manyproteins, we ask zero questions.
You just put it on and you takeit off.
That's the that's the magic ofour algorithm.
And that's where, going back towhere I started, not having any
(06:17):
features.
There's no carb ratios, there'sno basal rates, there's no uh
insulin sensitivity factors.
All you do is is tell it onething when you start, you do it
once, and then it learns aboutyou and and does some really
powerful stuff.
David Kerr (06:29):
John, this is really intriguing.
So let me understand this.
So do you take it off every dayand put it back on, or or do
you wear it and switch it off?
Is my first question.
And my second question is Imean, glucose is really
interesting, but what aboutsleep is a I mean, we spend a
third of our life with sleep.
(06:50):
Have you got any insights as towhether the quality and the
quantity of sleep is better whenyou're using your device and
when glucose is maintained?
So sorry about that.
It's two questions.
John Sjolund (07:02):
That is a great question.
And I'm gonna start with yoursecond question because I got so
excited that you asked me thatI partially forgot what the
first question was.
So let me start with the secondquestion.
You are correct.
In in diabetes studies to date,it's all about A1C.
It's all about A1Cimprovements.
And even time and range is asuch a new metric.
(07:27):
And our our pivotal study,which got approved by the FDA,
was the first diabetes studyapproved for time and range that
we're aware of, to the best ofour knowledge.
Maybe somebody will correct inthe comments.
But that's increasinglybecoming table stakes.
People know that automationworks.
We know that a Medtronic pumpor NSLET or beta bionics works.
(07:48):
That's table stakes.
But wow, if we can prove andshow that you sleep an hour
longer, or if we can prove thatyou have 20% more REM sleep, or
we can prove that you're nothaving to get up to go to the
bathroom, or because your CGM isgoing, that's really powerful.
So we certainly have sometricks up our sleeve for what
we're doing there.
(08:08):
And that's part of our whatwe're gonna be going forward
with.
David Kerr (08:11):
Yeah, my my first question was that just the
practicalities of this, whattime do you put it on?
And do you have to take it offevery night, or do you switch it
off and leave it, you know, onyour skin for 10 days or 14
days?
I'm just wondering about thepracticalities for our audience.
John Sjolund (08:29):
Thank you for reminding me.
But we've made the world'ssmallest patch pump.
It's about the size of a CGMsensor or solo, or at least of a
G6, and it's composed of areusable part that lasts for a
long time, and a single usedisposable part that you change,
you put on before you go to bedand you take it off in the
(08:49):
morning.
So, why is this important?
The things that are expensive,the motor, the processor, the
memory, that's all reusable.
So you're not throwing awaybatteries, you're not throwing
away processors, those thingsget amortized over a long time.
And then the disposable issuper simple.
And the reason for this is wewant to make this accessible to
(09:13):
way more people.
Cost is a real thing for a lotof people, of course.
And by doing it in this way, wecan drastically change the cost
of automation.
Secondly, and importantly,because you have basal insulin
on board that you've taken fromyour pen, if you forget to put
on Luna, you don't want to wearit one night.
(09:34):
It's it's periodic in nature.
So for a lot of people, theythey get the benefit and they
should be wearing it seven daysa week.
But if you got things incontrol, you ate dinner at 6
p.m., it was low carb, you'retesting your glucose, you might
not need it that night.
And so you get the choice.
And that's what a lot of peoplelike about what we're doing is
(09:55):
we're we're we're giving you thechoice to, you know, not
consume your identity by alwaysbeing tethered to something all
the time.
David Klonoff (10:02):
How do you feel that your pump will work if
someone is using one of thesenew weekly insulins that are
being developed?
John Sjolund (10:09):
A good question.
I guess.
How do we feel about weeklyinsulins to begin with and how
people's lives will be working?
If you're if you're takingtaking too little weekly insulin
and you need 20% more basalinsulin and you can't take
another injection, this isperfect for you because this
will be able to pick, you know,pull up the, give you that extra
(10:29):
insulin that you need, and itwill put your diabetes on
autopilot when you're sleeping.
So it's perfect for that.
If you took a little bit toomuch of it and you're getting
lows all the time, we're notgoing to give you any insulin,
but we also can't suck it out,we can't suspend it, we can't do
anything about it.
So you're gonna have the sameproblem as you as you did with
or without us.
David Klonoff (10:48):
Because people are changing their pump every
day, how do you see the amountof waste that is accumulating
with your product compared toother types of insulin pumps?
Great question.
John Sjolund (11:00):
So there is a lot less insulin wasted with our
device because you use all theinsulin.
So that's one.
The second thing is nobatteries, no motors, no PCBAs.
You're not throwing any ofthose things away.
Is it correct that there is adisposable?
Yes, there is.
That is as small as we done, weuse environmentally sound
(11:22):
packaging.
It is part of what we dobecause we we've all seen the
pictures of people and theirdiabetes supplies and their CGM
applicators, and boy, does thatadd up after a couple months or
a year.
So we we can't eliminate it.
Everything that we do, we thinkabout how do we reduce this?
How do we how do we use how dowe reduce our impact in the
design of the product?
David Kerr (11:42):
John, I'm getting very excited listening to this.
It opens up all sorts ofpossibilities.
The first thing is, is thisthis should be a good product if
you're traveling across timezones, wouldn't it?
When you have your sleepdisrupted and all that good
stuff.
And secondly, the fact thatyou're controlling overnight
(12:03):
hepatic glucose production,essentially, does that mean that
in the type 2 space we mightfind this could be a major
paradigm shift to overnightinsulin and borals or GLP1s or
something during the day?
I mean, is that a direction oftravel that you guys are
interested in, or is it far tooearly for that?
John Sjolund (12:24):
It's not far too early, and I I'm glad you asked
that question, Dr.
Kerr.
The we often when we starttalking about what we're doing
and we start saying we're makinga new diabetes therapy, we need
people to just stop for amoment and say, we're not
another omnipod, we're notanother patch pump, we're not
(12:44):
there are pumps around and thereare good ones.
And if you want to be tetheredto a pump all day, there are
good options for you.
We are something different andyou got to think about it
differently.
So, does it work for travel?
Of course.
If you're using Lantis andyou're you're not quite taking
it every 24 hours because you'regoing across time zones, this
is a great way to pick up thatdelta in between.
(13:05):
But the the second question isI'm type one, I've had it my
whole life, I've been makingproducts in type one for a long
time.
As I'm starting to learn moreabout type two, and we have
clinicians working with us, theyare telling us, guys, if you're
taking only basal insulin intype two, or if you're on a GLP
one before you introducerapid-acting insulin, this might
(13:29):
be a very powerful way to solvethe needs that people have that
are different from type one.
And so that's why we've decidedto pull in our type two program
now, and we're doing it inparallel with type one, because
we think we can help a lot ofpeople.
And remember, you set thisdevice up with one thing.
What is your total daily basaldose?
(13:50):
It's just not possible forprimary care doctors to support
other insulin pumps with carbratios and insulin sensitivity
factors.
It's not possible for me tofigure it out.
And this is what I do all day,every day.
So we think that we can reallysimplify the onboarding.
You get trained at home at yourown pace.
It's really simple.
So that's our goal.
Our goal is to make insulinautomation accessible.
David Klonoff (14:12):
John, this sounds like a really nice product.
There's a need for it.
Is there anything else that youhaven't told us that's
important about Luna?
John Sjolund (14:20):
There's a lot of things I haven't told you about
Luna because that's our secretsauce in here, right?
But I think, Dr.
Klonoff, the key here is thatdiabetes is different from many
other conditions and diseases,as we know, because there's a
person that is dealing with thisevery day at home.
(14:41):
They don't have a doctor intheir pocket, they don't have a
nurse in their pocket.
We are about bringing life backto people with diabetes.
We're about giving theiridentity back because so much of
diabetes is consuming ouridentities with the amount of
time we're spending on it, theremembering, the occlusions.
(15:02):
So we are a company that areabout simplifying things and
making it easier and reducingfriction.
If you want the Lamborghini ofdiabetes devices out there, they
exist.
And there are people that wantthat.
They want all the knobs, allthe dials.
They're out there, and you'regoing to get a couple more
points of time and range.
(15:23):
But for the masses that justwant to focus on their kids and
their lives and their schoolworkand want diabetes to go to the
background, we are for you.
And that's how we've designedour product to make it simple.
David Klonoff (15:36):
John, it sounds like you have a nice product.
I do have one more question.
I I didn't think I had anymore.
But what do you see as the roleof basal insulin treatment in
people using your product?
Will will people, if they'reusing uh a standard basil, will
they take it in the morning orthe evening?
Will they use any at all?
John Sjolund (15:56):
This is not replacing basal insulin.
This is complementing basalinsulin.
And so you you'll take it,you'll you will continue to take
your basal insulin exactly likeyou did before.
Let's say you're using Lunaevery day, and then you take a
break for a day, you take yourbasil next day, you take your
basil.
But what we'll do is we willhelp you to titrate your basil
(16:18):
as well as can possibly be done.
There are no tools for for forat least for type one.
There are no tools right now tohelp you titrate your basil and
use all this data that we getfrom our CGM to do so.
So we will help you to get yourbasil right.
So you're doing great duringthe day, you're avoiding hypo at
night, and we're lettingautomation to take over when you
(16:39):
need a little bit more support.
So no change, no change tobasil.
David Klonoff (16:44):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for explaining Luna.
This looks like a really niceproduct.
It's unique, and it looks likeit's going to fill a unique
niche.
So I hope uh all your futurestudies go well and that you
have a lot of success and thatuh you get a product on the
market.
We're now ending this sessionof Diabetes Technology Report
(17:05):
Starts.
I want to thank Dr.
David Kerr for co-hosting andthank you, John, for speaking.
This episode of DiabetesTechnology Report Starts will be
available on the DiabetesTechnology Society website at
Spotify and at other sites.
And until our next session, wesay goodbye now and good luck in
(17:26):
the future.
Bye bye.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Welcome to Diabetes Technology Report,
co-hosted by endocrinologistDavid Klonoff from UCSF and
David Kerr from Sutter Health.
Welcome to Diabetes TechnologyReport Starts.
I'm Dr.
David Klonoff.
I'm an endocrinologist in SanMateo, California.
I'm here with my fellow host,Dr.
(00:25):
David Kerr, who will introduceour interviewee today.
David.
David Kerr (00:30):
Thanks, David.
Hello, everyone.
I'm David Kerr.
I'm speaking to you from sunnySanta Barbara as usual.
And we have another personliving in the sunshine.
That's John Sjoland from Luna.
Welcome, John, to DiabetesTechnology Report Starts.
It's good to see you.
John Sjolund (00:47):
Great.
Dr.
Kerr, Dr.
Klonoff, thank you for havingme.
It's nice to see you guys.
Sun is shining.
So thank you.
David Kerr (00:53):
Excellent.
So we'd like to begin this byasking two simple questions.
Why are you interested indiabetes?
And from your company'sperspective, what is the
fundamental problem that you'retrying to solve?
John Sjolund (01:07):
So my interest in diabetes is very personal in
that I've had diabetes fornearly type 1 diabetes for
nearly 40 years myself.
I was diagnosed shortly beforemy fourth birthday and have been
living and managing and doingmy best to take care of it.
But only later in life, and notmy it wasn't my first career to
(01:29):
start developing products, butI did start developing products
for people like us with diabetesbecause I felt that technology
was not reaching the masses.
And I saw it as an obligationto take my skills and what I'd
learned in life to try to bringreally, really helpful and
useful products to more people.
And in terms of what we'redoing, so Luna is a product that
(01:55):
we created, which is aboutbringing the incredible and
awesome benefits of automatedinsulin delivery to pen users.
And we've always felt fordecades that people have been
asked to make a decision whetherto stay tethered and be
attached to a pump or to beexposed to nighttime
(02:15):
hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia atnight.
And there's been this all ornothing standard where the
majority of people who use pensfor one reason or another, all
users that use pens, which isthe majority of instant
delivery, aren't benefiting fromtechnology.
And we wanted to solve that.
And that's what we've done atLuna.
David Kerr (02:34):
So the aim is to do what?
To prevent hypoglycemia ormaintain a certain level of
control?
Or what's how what's successlook like if you start using
Luna?
John Sjolund (02:48):
So here's the thing, Dr.
Kerr.
Over 65% of type ones in the USuse pens.
And in Sweden, where I'm from,it's much higher.
The other key importantlearning that this the secret of
automated insulin delivery,whether it's tandem or Medtronic
or other products or insulate,is that they work really well at
(03:09):
nighttime.
Over 80% of the glucoseimprovement that happens over 24
hours happens at night.
And so when you're using pens,you're just you're going to bed
and hoping for the best.
On average, people spend 40% ofthe night at hyperglycemia.
They're waking up, they'resweaty, they're low.
So what we do is when you weara CGM and you wear our product,
(03:32):
which is the world's smallestpatch pump, we're automatically
giving you insulin if you needit to get you to wake up at
target.
And we're helping with yourbasal insulin dose if you need
it to avoid hypoglycemia.
So we're, we're, we're, we'regoing at it from both ends.
And we really about optimizingyour night so you wake up at
(03:53):
target.
David Klonoff (03:54):
John, what type of studies have you done to
demonstrate that your product iseffective?
John Sjolund (03:58):
Yeah, so the product is not yet cleared.
We're not on the market yetbecause we're still in the midst
of studies.
But we've run both safetystudies where you take a small
group, small groups of peoplewith type one and bring them to
a clinic where they're monitoredby safety staff.
They're checking.
Because of course, if youralgorithm goes haywire, it could
be very, very dangerous.
(04:19):
Um, that's all gotten a greenlight.
And we've also put it out intothe field where people bring it
home for 90 days.
They go about their normallife.
And uh yeah, we have you knownearly 2,000 nights of people
using it.
And we've learned a lot.
We've improved our product.
We're about to start a newround of studies and a big
pivotal study later this yearfor both type 1 and type 2
(04:41):
diabetes.
David Klonoff (04:42):
What type of algorithm are you using?
Where did it come from?
And uh what makes it effective?
Does it have any particularfeatures that other algorithms
don't have?
John Sjolund (04:53):
It's most powerful featured is that it doesn't
have any features.
So it this is something thatwe've developed here.
We have an incrediblyincredible data science and
algorithm team.
And what we're trying to do isbring automation to people that
already have their basal insulinon board, whether it's Lantis
(05:14):
or Togeo or whatever it is.
And that's a really hardautomation problem.
Our team and Lane Desbrough,who we all know, you know, when
we started this with Lane, wethought this was going to be an
easy thing.
If high, give insulin.
It wasn't, and it hasn't beenbecause people are
over-basalized orunder-basalized, their basal
(05:34):
needs change week to week, nightto night.
So our algorithm is aboutletting people do whatever they
need to manage their diabetes bythemselves during the day.
And then at nighttime, theautomation takes over.
And in the morning, you take itoff and you go back to pens and
do your normal day-to-dayroutine.
(05:55):
But this, the ability totransition people onto
automation each night and off inthe morning, and doing that in
a way where we're not askingthem when they last took their
bolus, what they eat, how manyproteins, we ask zero questions.
You just put it on and you takeit off.
That's the that's the magic ofour algorithm.
And that's where, going back towhere I started, not having any
(06:17):
features.
There's no carb ratios, there'sno basal rates, there's no uh
insulin sensitivity factors.
All you do is is tell it onething when you start, you do it
once, and then it learns aboutyou and and does some really
powerful stuff.
David Kerr (06:29):
John, this is really intriguing.
So let me understand this.
So do you take it off every dayand put it back on, or or do
you wear it and switch it off?
Is my first question.
And my second question is Imean, glucose is really
interesting, but what aboutsleep is a I mean, we spend a
third of our life with sleep.
(06:50):
Have you got any insights as towhether the quality and the
quantity of sleep is better whenyou're using your device and
when glucose is maintained?
So sorry about that.
It's two questions.
John Sjolund (07:02):
That is a great question.
And I'm gonna start with yoursecond question because I got so
excited that you asked me thatI partially forgot what the
first question was.
So let me start with the secondquestion.
You are correct.
In in diabetes studies to date,it's all about A1C.
It's all about A1Cimprovements.
And even time and range is asuch a new metric.
(07:27):
And our our pivotal study,which got approved by the FDA,
was the first diabetes studyapproved for time and range that
we're aware of, to the best ofour knowledge.
Maybe somebody will correct inthe comments.
But that's increasinglybecoming table stakes.
People know that automationworks.
We know that a Medtronic pumpor NSLET or beta bionics works.
(07:48):
That's table stakes.
But wow, if we can prove andshow that you sleep an hour
longer, or if we can prove thatyou have 20% more REM sleep, or
we can prove that you're nothaving to get up to go to the
bathroom, or because your CGM isgoing, that's really powerful.
So we certainly have sometricks up our sleeve for what
we're doing there.
(08:08):
And that's part of our whatwe're gonna be going forward
with.
David Kerr (08:11):
Yeah, my my first question was that just the
practicalities of this, whattime do you put it on?
And do you have to take it offevery night, or do you switch it
off and leave it, you know, onyour skin for 10 days or 14
days?
I'm just wondering about thepracticalities for our audience.
John Sjolund (08:29):
Thank you for reminding me.
But we've made the world'ssmallest patch pump.
It's about the size of a CGMsensor or solo, or at least of a
G6, and it's composed of areusable part that lasts for a
long time, and a single usedisposable part that you change,
you put on before you go to bedand you take it off in the
(08:49):
morning.
So, why is this important?
The things that are expensive,the motor, the processor, the
memory, that's all reusable.
So you're not throwing awaybatteries, you're not throwing
away processors, those thingsget amortized over a long time.
And then the disposable issuper simple.
And the reason for this is wewant to make this accessible to
(09:13):
way more people.
Cost is a real thing for a lotof people, of course.
And by doing it in this way, wecan drastically change the cost
of automation.
Secondly, and importantly,because you have basal insulin
on board that you've taken fromyour pen, if you forget to put
on Luna, you don't want to wearit one night.
(09:34):
It's it's periodic in nature.
So for a lot of people, theythey get the benefit and they
should be wearing it seven daysa week.
But if you got things incontrol, you ate dinner at 6
p.m., it was low carb, you'retesting your glucose, you might
not need it that night.
And so you get the choice.
And that's what a lot of peoplelike about what we're doing is
(09:55):
we're we're we're giving you thechoice to, you know, not
consume your identity by alwaysbeing tethered to something all
the time.
David Klonoff (10:02):
How do you feel that your pump will work if
someone is using one of thesenew weekly insulins that are
being developed?
John Sjolund (10:09):
A good question.
I guess.
How do we feel about weeklyinsulins to begin with and how
people's lives will be working?
If you're if you're takingtaking too little weekly insulin
and you need 20% more basalinsulin and you can't take
another injection, this isperfect for you because this
will be able to pick, you know,pull up the, give you that extra
(10:29):
insulin that you need, and itwill put your diabetes on
autopilot when you're sleeping.
So it's perfect for that.
If you took a little bit toomuch of it and you're getting
lows all the time, we're notgoing to give you any insulin,
but we also can't suck it out,we can't suspend it, we can't do
anything about it.
So you're gonna have the sameproblem as you as you did with
or without us.
David Klonoff (10:48):
Because people are changing their pump every
day, how do you see the amountof waste that is accumulating
with your product compared toother types of insulin pumps?
Great question.
John Sjolund (11:00):
So there is a lot less insulin wasted with our
device because you use all theinsulin.
So that's one.
The second thing is nobatteries, no motors, no PCBAs.
You're not throwing any ofthose things away.
Is it correct that there is adisposable?
Yes, there is.
That is as small as we done, weuse environmentally sound
(11:22):
packaging.
It is part of what we dobecause we we've all seen the
pictures of people and theirdiabetes supplies and their CGM
applicators, and boy, does thatadd up after a couple months or
a year.
So we we can't eliminate it.
Everything that we do, we thinkabout how do we reduce this?
How do we how do we use how dowe reduce our impact in the
design of the product?
David Kerr (11:42):
John, I'm getting very excited listening to this.
It opens up all sorts ofpossibilities.
The first thing is, is thisthis should be a good product if
you're traveling across timezones, wouldn't it?
When you have your sleepdisrupted and all that good
stuff.
And secondly, the fact thatyou're controlling overnight
(12:03):
hepatic glucose production,essentially, does that mean that
in the type 2 space we mightfind this could be a major
paradigm shift to overnightinsulin and borals or GLP1s or
something during the day?
I mean, is that a direction oftravel that you guys are
interested in, or is it far tooearly for that?
John Sjolund (12:24):
It's not far too early, and I I'm glad you asked
that question, Dr.
Kerr.
The we often when we starttalking about what we're doing
and we start saying we're makinga new diabetes therapy, we need
people to just stop for amoment and say, we're not
another omnipod, we're notanother patch pump, we're not
(12:44):
there are pumps around and thereare good ones.
And if you want to be tetheredto a pump all day, there are
good options for you.
We are something different andyou got to think about it
differently.
So, does it work for travel?
Of course.
If you're using Lantis andyou're you're not quite taking
it every 24 hours because you'regoing across time zones, this
is a great way to pick up thatdelta in between.
(13:05):
But the the second question isI'm type one, I've had it my
whole life, I've been makingproducts in type one for a long
time.
As I'm starting to learn moreabout type two, and we have
clinicians working with us, theyare telling us, guys, if you're
taking only basal insulin intype two, or if you're on a GLP
one before you introducerapid-acting insulin, this might
(13:29):
be a very powerful way to solvethe needs that people have that
are different from type one.
And so that's why we've decidedto pull in our type two program
now, and we're doing it inparallel with type one, because
we think we can help a lot ofpeople.
And remember, you set thisdevice up with one thing.
What is your total daily basaldose?
(13:50):
It's just not possible forprimary care doctors to support
other insulin pumps with carbratios and insulin sensitivity
factors.
It's not possible for me tofigure it out.
And this is what I do all day,every day.
So we think that we can reallysimplify the onboarding.
You get trained at home at yourown pace.
It's really simple.
So that's our goal.
Our goal is to make insulinautomation accessible.
David Klonoff (14:12):
John, this sounds like a really nice product.
There's a need for it.
Is there anything else that youhaven't told us that's
important about Luna?
John Sjolund (14:20):
There's a lot of things I haven't told you about
Luna because that's our secretsauce in here, right?
But I think, Dr.
Klonoff, the key here is thatdiabetes is different from many
other conditions and diseases,as we know, because there's a
person that is dealing with thisevery day at home.
(14:41):
They don't have a doctor intheir pocket, they don't have a
nurse in their pocket.
We are about bringing life backto people with diabetes.
We're about giving theiridentity back because so much of
diabetes is consuming ouridentities with the amount of
time we're spending on it, theremembering, the occlusions.
(15:02):
So we are a company that areabout simplifying things and
making it easier and reducingfriction.
If you want the Lamborghini ofdiabetes devices out there, they
exist.
And there are people that wantthat.
They want all the knobs, allthe dials.
They're out there, and you'regoing to get a couple more
points of time and range.
(15:23):
But for the masses that justwant to focus on their kids and
their lives and their schoolworkand want diabetes to go to the
background, we are for you.
And that's how we've designedour product to make it simple.
David Klonoff (15:36):
John, it sounds like you have a nice product.
I do have one more question.
I I didn't think I had anymore.
But what do you see as the roleof basal insulin treatment in
people using your product?
Will will people, if they'reusing uh a standard basil, will
they take it in the morning orthe evening?
Will they use any at all?
John Sjolund (15:56):
This is not replacing basal insulin.
This is complementing basalinsulin.
And so you you'll take it,you'll you will continue to take
your basal insulin exactly likeyou did before.
Let's say you're using Lunaevery day, and then you take a
break for a day, you take yourbasil next day, you take your
basil.
But what we'll do is we willhelp you to titrate your basil
(16:18):
as well as can possibly be done.
There are no tools for for forat least for type one.
There are no tools right now tohelp you titrate your basil and
use all this data that we getfrom our CGM to do so.
So we will help you to get yourbasil right.
So you're doing great duringthe day, you're avoiding hypo at
night, and we're lettingautomation to take over when you
(16:39):
need a little bit more support.
So no change, no change tobasil.
David Klonoff (16:44):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for explaining Luna.
This looks like a really niceproduct.
It's unique, and it looks likeit's going to fill a unique
niche.
So I hope uh all your futurestudies go well and that you
have a lot of success and thatuh you get a product on the
market.
We're now ending this sessionof Diabetes Technology Report
(17:05):
Starts.
I want to thank Dr.
David Kerr for co-hosting andthank you, John, for speaking.
This episode of DiabetesTechnology Report Starts will be
available on the DiabetesTechnology Society website at
Spotify and at other sites.
And until our next session, wesay goodbye now and good luck in
(17:26):
the future.
Bye bye.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
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