A year into the rollout of the Omnipod 5 pump, Insulet is still riding high on the automated insulin delivery system’s ever-increasing popularity.
For the first quarter of this year, in the U.S. alone—where the tubeless insulin pump was cleared by the FDA in January 2022—Insulet calculated Omnipod revenues of $259 million, according to a Thursday earnings report. That’s a year-over-year increase of nearly 49%, which CEO Jim Hollingshead classified on a call with investors as yet another record-setting quarter of stateside revenue growth.
Not only did the increase top the highs set in the previous two quarters, when U.S. Omnipod earnings grew by 42.4% and 45%, respectively, but it also went above and beyond Insulet’s own predictions for the quarter. At the start of 2023, the diabetes devicemaker had suggested that U.S. Omnipod revenues would grow by between 33% and 36% throughout the first three months of the year.
The U.S. revenues made up nearly three-quarters of the company’s total quarterly Omnipod earnings, which reached $357.6 million—itself a year-over-year jump of more than 32%.
Thanks to that expectation-exceeding start to the year, Insulet has bumped up its forecasts for the rest of 2023. It’s now aiming for global Omnipod revenue growth of up to 25%, compared to original predictions that topped out at a 22% increase. In the U.S., it’s expecting Omnipod earnings to grow between 27% and 31%, up from a previous range of 21% to 26%.
Insulet’s financial growth was linked to a sharp increase in new Omnipod users. According to Hollingshead, the company “once again delivered another record for U.S. and global new customer starts for any Q1,” with almost all of the new customers in the U.S. opting for the Omnipod 5 model.
Despite those steadily climbing user numbers, however, the CEO noted that there’s still plenty more room to grow.
“Pump penetration in the U.S. Type 1 [diabetes] market is still only approximately 40% and only low single digits in Type 2, and international market penetration is much below the U.S.,” he said on Thursday’s call. “There is a massive unmet need for insulin therapy solutions, which also means we have a massive market opportunity. The Omnipod platform, and especially Omnipod 5, will open that market even further.”
A key part of Insulet’s market-opening strategy lies in its ongoing efforts to recruit more Type 2 users. Just last month, the company scored FDA clearance for the Omnipod Go system, which is designed to continuously dispense rapid-acting insulin over the course of three days, replacing daily manual injections of long-acting insulin for people with Type 2 diabetes. Omnipod Go will first roll out in a “small pilot program this year in select locations,” per Hollingshead, with a full commercial launch planned for 2024.
Additionally, the company is in the process of recruiting participants for a clinical trial of Omnipod 5 in Type 2 diabetes. Hollingshead has previously said the study will be Insulet’s largest to date, with about 350 enrollees expected, and added on Thursday’s call that they’re “making great progress” in that recruitment.
In a separate announcement Thursday following the earnings release, Insulet said it would reorganize its leadership structure this summer, with all changes taking effect at the start of the second half of 2023, on July 1.
Among the switch-ups are the promotions of Eric Benjamin from executive VP of innovation and strategy to chief product and customer experience officer, and of Mark Field from group VP of software engineering to chief technology officer.
Meanwhile, Insulet is also splitting its chief commercial officer position in half, to be replaced with a pair of general managers focused on the U.S. and international businesses, respectively. Patrick Crannell will stay in the latter role, and the company is in the process of hiring his counterpart overseeing U.S. commercial operations. In tandem with the split, Insulet’s former chief commercial officer, Bret Christensen, is leaving Insulet as of Friday to “pursue other opportunities,” according to the announcement, but will stay on as a consultant through the transition.
“I’m confident that the refinements we are making to our organization structure will help us to not only continue our terrific momentum but also improve our efficiency, speed our time to market with new innovations and accelerate our growth in international markets,” Hollingshead said of the restructuring on the call with investors.