AgaMatrix Holdings Announces Corporate Name Change to Waveform Diabetes, New Executive Chairman and CEO Rick Valencia

By AIT News Desk On Jun 1, 2020

In support of their continued expansion into the global diabetes device market, AgaMatrix Holdings LLC announces a corporate name change to WaveForm Diabetes to reflect their commitment to diabetes care, led by new Executive Chairman and CEO, Rick Valencia

The newly named WaveForm Diabetes (formerly AgaMatrix Holdings) welcomes new Executive Chairman and CEO, Rick Valencia, to further the company’s growth and expansion into global markets.

Mr. Valencia has extensive experience in digital health and diabetes care, serving as a Board Member at Tandem Diabetes, and Executive Chairman at TrekIT Health. Previously, Mr. Valencia founded and served as the President of Qualcomm Life, Inc., a digital health pioneer. Qualcomm Life enabled remote patient monitoring by connecting medical monitoring and diagnostic devices and combining the data to provide meaningful insights to patients and their caregivers.

“I am honored and excited to join the WaveForm Diabetes team during this pivotal stage in the company and the explosive growth in the diabetes care industry,” said Mr. Valencia. “WaveForm has a 20-year track record of delivering high quality, connected glucose management solutions to market in partnership with some of the world’s leading diabetes and retail pharmacy brands. Their new, disruptive, continuous glucose monitor is a game changer that, at a time when diabetes continues to grow at an alarming rate around the world, will help to ensure more people living with diabetes have access to easy to use, affordable, yet state-of-the-art glucose management solutions.”

In addition to the new name and new leadership, Waveform Diabetes announced that it has entered into a commercial agreement with Bayer, the global life science enterprise, to provide innovative continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) solutions that help address unmet needs for patients in China. Under the new partnership with Bayer, WaveForm will develop a 15-day wear CGM while Bayer will be responsible for the commercialization, distribution, sales, and customer support in mainland China. WaveForm and Bayer will explore customized enhancements to the CGM to meet the needs of Chinese patients and physicians.

“We are excited to work with Bayer to bring a new glucose monitoring solution that will provide the benefits of extended wear time and virtually pain-free insertion, with the real-time data and alerts of a fully-featured CGM,” said John Alberico, former CEO of AgaMatrix, Inc who will be staying with the company as President, COO and member of the Board of Directors. “Leveraging the expertise and leadership that Bayer has established in diabetes management, we will deliver more benefits for patients in China.”

According to the latest figures from the International Diabetes Federation,¹ an estimated 116 million people aged 20 years and older are living with diabetes in China, and this figure is anticipated to grow to 140 million people over the next 10 years.

The WaveForm CGM is based on several pioneering, patented innovations in glucose sensor technology, facilitating a virtually pain-free insertion process, limited interferences, extended wear time, and environmentally friendly, reusable parts. The system consists of a thin, wearable sensor that collects glucose data from just below the skin which is processed and wirelessly transferred to a mobile app through a small transmitter. The rechargeable transmitter lasts an entire session on one complete charge, and uses Bluetooth wireless technology to transfer data to an Android and iOS compatible mobile app.

WaveForm received CE Mark approval for their 14-day CGM system in November 2019, and began commercial activities to release the product under the GlucoMen Day brand in select European countries through their partnership with A. Menarini Diagnostics S.r.l. WaveForm is preparing for clinical studies in both mainland China and the United States, and also continues to conduct studies for extended sensor wear-time and alternate site indications within Europe.

¹ International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas, 9^th edition. Brussels, Belgium: International Diabetes Federation, 2019.