Clearance makes Beta Bionics look like a target

FDA clearance of Beta Bionics’ version of an artificial pancreas could position the company as a takeover target. But who might buy, and how much might they pay? Speaking to Evaluate Vantage last year, executive chair Edward Damiano insisted that the iLet technology would appeal to a different population versus those using existing artificial pancreas systems like Medtronic’s recently approved MiniMed 780G, owing to the fact that the simpler MiniMed interface does not tend to allow the kind of granular insulin control artificial pancreas users like. So Medtronic or other players here like Abbott or Dexcom could be in the frame as buyers. So might makers of more traditional diabetes monitoring and therapeutic technologies like Ascensia or Lifescan, or even the biopharmas that manufacture insulin products – Beta Bionics counts Novo Nordisk, Lilly and Zealand Pharma among its venture backers. As for how much a notional buyer might pay, Beta Bionics last raised money in February 2022 at a valuation of just over $300m. With tuck-in deals increasingly in vogue in today’s cash-strapped environment, and Damiano saying he was open to the idea of a sale, Beta Bionics might not remain independent for long.