Needle-free monitoring and drug delivery
Echo's lead program in analyte monitoring is focused on glucose and utilizes the Symphony® tCGM System, a non-invasive (needle-free), wireless, transdermal continuous glucose monitoring system designed to provide accurate, real-time blood glucose data conveniently, continuously and cost-effectively. Symphony incorporates Prelude, our proprietary skin permeation device, a transdermal sensor, wireless tranceiver and data display technologies.
Symphony is being designed to provide reliable, continuous blood glucose data in order to improve patient monitoring of blood glucose to allow for better overall clinical outcomes for patients in hospital critical care units and for people with diabetes. All existing FDA-approved continuous glucose monitoring systems are needle-based, requiring insertion of a glucose sensor into the patient's skin, which gives rise to risks of infection, inflammation or bleeding at the insertion site. Symphony is a non-invasive tCGM system that does not require insertion of its glucose sensor and thus does not give rise to the risks or discomfort associated with needle-based CGM systems.
Following skin permeation with Prelude, a biosensor is placed on the permeated site. After a brief warm-up period Symphony wirelessly provides the patient's glucose level every minute to a remote monitor. The monitor then tracks the glucose levels and rate of glucose changes and provides visual and audible alarms if the patient's glucose levels move outside the target range, which can be personalized for each patient.
In this way, Symphony will provide real-time access to glucose values and changes and should identify prolonged excursions into the hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic zones.
