Lilly Concocts Something New for Diabetics to Worry About: "Finger Health"

(MoneyWatch)  The drug industry has long thrived on creating "awareness" for new conditions for which it just happens to have a new treatment. With diabetes climbing the charts these days, it was probably only a matter of time before some enterprising marketer hit upon a way to get people clamoring for some related treatment they hadn't previously known they needed.

That day is now here, courtesy of Eli Lilly and the medical-device startup Pelikan Technologies, who aim to alert diabetics that they have something new to worry about as they manage their chronic disease -- "Finger Health." And since it wouldn't do to get people riled up without giving them something to buy or request from their doctors, it turns out that the new co-promotion campaign is getting underway just as Pelikan is launching a new type of finger-lancing device it says can eliminate much of the pain and "damage" diabetics experience while drawing regular droplets of blood for glucose testing.

Now, makers of glucose testers and associated lancets have been trying for years to minimize the discomfort of that blood-drawing, which is unquestionably an inconvenience for many and probably more than that for some. The Finger Health campaign, though, wants all diabetics to feel like they currently have to choose between "healthy fingers" and regular glucose testing, which is crucial to diabetic control. Pelikan's Web site should give you a good sense of where that campaign is headed. One never-very-reassuring sign: Pelikan quotes from a "study" that supposedly suggests its lancet device causes less injury than others, but in an asterisked comment says only that the data is "on file at Pelikan Technologies." Where it can't do diabetics much good -- but can't also do Pelikan much harm, I suppose.

In any case, Lilly and Pelikan want to reassure diabetics that they no longer have to face that terrible choice, at least so long as they're willing to shell out $200 for the Pelikan "computer-controlled" lancet device and its expensive needle cartridges ($15 for 100). Existing lancet pens, by the way, can be as inexpensive as $15 to $30, with the needles themselves running as little as $7 for 100.

But if you're a diabetic, surely the extra expense is worth it in order to preserve your Finger Health, isn't it? If you agree, there are some very caring people at Lilly and Pelikan who'd like to do their best to help.

Postscript: Lilly's role in all this isn't entirely clear to me. It may one day be interested in acquiring Pelikan, particularly if its technology might prove useful in making insulin injections themselves less painful, but for now Lilly makes billions selling insulin itself and appears likely to focus its "co-promotion" efforts on new types of insulin and injectors.

(Image via Flickr user Khürt, CC 2.0)