Our Response To Recent Media Coverage

Medtronic is proud of our long history and tradition of providing high-quality, innovative healthcare products and services. For nearly 70 years, Medtronic has been working to improve the lives of patients around the world. Along the way, we have been consistently recognized as one of the most admired and reputable companies in the world. Our reputation is the result of our commitment to patient safety, transparency, compliance, and ethical business practices.

Safety is our first and foremost priority, and we adhere to the highest medical, scientific, regulatory and legal standards. We regularly hear from patients and their physicians, recounting how our innovative therapies have dramatically improved health and saved lives. In an overwhelming majority of instances, our products perform exactly as intended, and the overwhelming majority of our 86,000 employees serve our customers every day with care, honesty, and integrity. When we communicate about our therapies and offerings, we strive for utmost accuracy, context and safety because we know that people will make life-impacting decisions based on those communications.

As a global healthcare company, we stand behind our products and embrace our responsibility as a leader in innovative, responsible and ethical development of life-saving medical technologies. Every day, we strive to meet and exceed our high standards of excellence in pursuit of our mission to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life.

ICIJ RELATED MEDIA STATEMENTS

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INSULIN PUMPS

  • Approximately 11 million Canadians are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes, which include approximately 300,000 children and adults who are living type 1 diabetes. Diabetes remains the 7th leading cause of death both in the United States and globally1
  • Insulin pumps are sophisticated medical systems used to deliver insulin to patients with diabetes who do not have the ability to produce it naturally. The pump delivers insulin in a manner that, as closely as possible, mimics the function of a healthy human pancreas with the goal of normalizing blood glucose levels as much as possible.
  • For more than 35 years, Medtronic and its subsidiary MiniMed have been committed to helping people with diabetes achieve better clinical and quality of life outcomes — beginning with the introduction of the MiniMed 502 Paradigm insulin pump and now with the world’s first hybrid closed loop system- the MiniMed 670G System.
  • The comprehensive and rigorous body of clinical trial and real-world data strongly supports both the safety and efficacy of our insulin pumps, which have benefited 1.2 million patients globally over the last four decades.2.

DIABETES OVERVIEW

Approximately 11 million Canadians are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes, which include approximately 300,000 children and adults who are living type 1 diabetes3.

The complications stemming from high and low blood sugar levels can lead to serious short- and long- term complications including kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, heart attack, stroke, and pregnancy complications. Low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) can be life-threatening, particularly at night when they are most difficult to manage. Type 1 diabetes is associated with an estimated loss of life-expectancy of up to 13 years.1

MEDTRONIC MINIMEDTM INSULIN PUMPS

For more than 35 years, Medtronic and its subsidiary MiniMed have been committed to helping people with diabetes achieve better clinical and quality of life outcomes — since the introduction of the MiniMed 502 Paradigm insulin pump and subsequent innovations leading up to our latest hybrid closed loop advancement.

These innovations include products to further improve diabetes management, including soft flexible cannulas to improve patient comfort, continuous glucose monitoring systems to improve blood glucose control, and advanced software to help people with diabetes avoid hyper- and hypo-glycemic episodes. Large scale studies conducted over the last 15 years have shown that our insulin pump technologies significantly improve diabetes management.

 

ROBUST CLINICAL TRIAL DATA INDICATES MEDTRONIC’S MINIMED INSULIN PUMPS ARE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE

In evaluating and monitoring the safety of our products, Medtronic carefully considers the totality of available scientific evidence, with emphasis on data from controlled clinical trials and studies conducted under real-world conditions. The totality of that data strongly supports both the safety and efficacy of our insulin pumps, which have benefitted over 1.2 million patients globally over the past four decades.

Studies have reported that near-normal glucose control, which can be achieved with an insulin pump, can prolong life an average of five years and delay the onset of complications from diabetes, such as blindness, kidney failure, amputation, impotence, coma and heart disease, by an average of 15 years5.

 

1 See American Diabetes Association- Statistics about Diabetes, available at:  http://www.diabtes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/ Last accessed on November 26, 2018.

2 Data on file.

3 See Diabetes Canada Association- available at: https://www.diabetes.ca/about-diabetes/types-of-diabetes and https://www.diabetes.ca/newsroom/search-news/closed-loop-pump Last accessed on November 26, 2018.

4 Jama 2015; 313(1):1-9)

5 Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group. Lifetime benefits and costs of intensive therapy as practiced in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial. JAMA, November 6, 1996; 276: No.17.