MEDIA RELEASE

·         Next-generation Continuous Glucose Monitoring System FreeStyle Libre 2 will be available to New Zealanders living with insulin-requiring diabetes from 10th January 2023.

 ·         The device features optional and customisable alarms to alert users of critical glucose levels, allowing them to sleep through the night and be woken up only when necessary.

 ·         There are around 292,000 New Zealanders living with diabetes, which includes all types of diagnosed diabetes.

New Zealanders living with diabetes can now choose to be alerted of critical glucose levels instantly thanks to the new FreeStyle Libre 2 Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system.

Featuring optional and customisable alarms, FreeStyle Libre 2 is available for use by adults and children 4 years and older using insulin.

Abbott’s next-generation diabetes technology will be available at the same price as the original FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring system and at a fraction of the price of other available CGM systems.

Diabetes is a life-long condition which involves regular glucose monitoring. Traditionally, people living with diabetes are required to prick their fingers and draw blood many times a day to monitor their glucose levels.

The new device enables people with insulin-requiring diabetes to avoid these painful routine finger pricks, by applying a small wearable sensor to the back of their arm which shares glucose data with the FreeStyle LibreLink smartphone app. A FreeStyle Libre 2 sensor can be worn for up to 14 days.

Bluetooth technology allows the user to set optional and customisable alarms to alert them when their glucose levels are too low or high. This feature can provide peace-of-mind to parents of children with diabetes as they can be woken up if necessary or sleep uninterrupted.

Amanda Burrow from Lower Hutt, Wellington, is the mother of 13-year-old Samantha who is living with type 1 diabetes. Samantha has used the previous generation of FreeStyle Libre since October 2018.

 Ms Burrow reflects on her daughter’s diagnosis at eight years old: “We actually took her to the doctor for an eye infection and we just thought it was a standard visit […]. But the doctor heard what I was saying and checked her blood sugars and told us to go to the hospital immediately. It was a complete shock.”

Ms Burrow said of her experience as a mother of a child with type 1 diabetes: “We wanted [Samantha] to know that she could still carry on doing everything like normal.

Speaking on how alarm-based diabetes technology could assist people with diabetes, Ms Burrow surmised: “It's just that peace-of-mind that she's going to be safe no matter what she's doing. She does horse riding, surfing and brass band, and through all of those things knowing that she's going to be safe is life changing.”Glucose data gathered by the FreeStyle LibreLink app are instantly shared with a cloud-based platform that healthcare professionals can securely access to review the data called LibreView.

Dr Rosemary Hall is a Wellington-based endocrinologist and President of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (NZSSD) who frequently sees people living with insulin-requiring diabetes in her practice. She said:

 “There is plenty of evidence to show that Continuous Glucose Monitoring is completely life changing […] for people and economically beneficial.

 “[CGM systems] change the way that people can participate in the workforce. They change the way that people can have pregnancies. They change the way that you can travel or head on into, into older age.”

 “That is particularly so when there are alarms present, particularly the overnight alarms and particularly at times when people are busy and unable to check or to do tests.

 “There are so many parents in New Zealand who are waking every two hours in order to check their children's blood glucose level for years, for decades. I think having an alarm present on a continuous glucose monitor makes such a big difference.
“It means then that people can feel much more comfortable to sleep, to let their children, go off to school trips or to camps and not have that constant worry that there’s going to be unexpected lows or highs that people haven't picked up.

 Heather Verry is the CEO of Diabetes New Zealand. When speaking on the optional and customisable alarms feature, she said: “I think any feature that provides options for parents is going to be great.”

“With technology such as this, it's natural that it's going to reduce that stress level hugely, by better being able to better manage their diabetes, they'll probably have less sick days, this times when they end up in hospital. So I think their whole quality of life as just a huge change.”

There are around 292,000 New Zealanders living with diabetes, which includes all types of diagnosed diabetes.

FreeStyle Libre technology is used by over four million people across 50 countries.

ENDS

Media contact: Philippa Bosquet, +61 3 7036 7632.