€31M Series B Funds Rollout of Artificial Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes

The French biotech Diabeloop has raised €31M to launch an artificial pancreas device designed to automatically control the blood glucose levels of type 1 diabetes patients. According to Diabeloop, this is the biggest Series B round raised by a European company developing therapies that use artificial intelligence. The round was led by the French family office Cemag Invest, and includes new French firms Odyssée Ventures and AGIR dom, and the Indian investment firm ADAG. Diabeloop will use the money to fund the commercialization of a device that uses sensors to measure blood sugar, and then pump a calculated dose of insulin to keep blood sugar at a healthy level. The device was approved in the EU in late 2018 for the treatment of adults with type 1 diabetes. While Diabeloop’s device is known as a type of artificial pancreas, users need to manually tell the device when they eat. This places it at step four of the ‘six stages’ of artificial pancreas technology, where steps five and six mean full automation with no input needed from users. Diabeloop’s commercialization efforts boosted by the funding include making reimbursement agreements in France and Germany, and applying for market approval in the US. The round will also fund clinical trials of the artificial pancreas device in non-standard type 1 diabetes patient populations such as children, adolescents, and people with hard-to-control forms of type 1 diabetes.