2 Israeli companies report success in blood sugar monitoring

OrSense and Glucon have both developed products for 
non-invasive blood sugar measurement.

by Gali Weinreb 
Globes
June 13, 2006

Two Israeli companies, OrSense and Glucon have presented good 
results of clinical tests at the American Diabetes Association’s 
66th Scientific Sessions, in Washington, D.C. This is considered 
to be one of the most important conferences in the field and Israel 
is considered a minor powerhouse for development of new diabetes 
monitoring technologies. OrSense and Glucon were the only 
companies to present clinical results in non-invasive blood sugar 
testing, one of the hot issues on the conference agenda and one 
of the big technological challenges in the field today. OrSense has 
developed a device for blood sugar testing that uses a strong optical 
signal, yielding a high signal-to-noise ratio that is blood driven. 
A study of 24 patients at the Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer 
found that the readings obtained using the OrSense device were 
as accurate as those obtained using regular invasive testing of 
type I and type II diabetes patients, under home conditions. 

In his presentation to the Washington conference, director of the 
endocrinology institute at Sheba Hospital Professor Avraham 
Karasik, said, “We believe that OrSense’s glucose monitoring 
system is set to become the system for real-time blood sugar 
monitoring of diabetes patients under home conditions.” 

Glucon has also developed a device for blood-sugar measurement, 
which works by reading blood glucose levels directly from a blood 
vessel, without puncturing the skin, through the use of a novel 
photo-acoustic (optical and sound-based) technology. Glucon’s 
device was also shown by a clinical study to be as precise as 
invasive blood sugar measurement devices. Its device was tested 
in a study of 62 patients and was presented at the conference by 
Dr. Ram Weiss, a senior pediatric endocrinologist at Hadassah - 
Hebrew University School of Medicine in Jerusalem. 

Both companies have yet to conduct clinical trials according to 
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocols, and to prove 
that their devices are precise enough to be approved as 
alternatives to the invasive glucometer devices (which give 
readings by finger pricking), currently used by diabetes patients. 

Glucon said it believed its product would be on the market by 
as early as 2007. OrSense is also set to begin clinical trials of 
its product this year.