Image credit: Portal Diabetes
Portal Diabetes is a privately-held medtech company founded in 2013 that is now headquartered in Westfield, Indiana (near Indianapolis), after relocating its headquarters there from California. The company is developing a “fully automated” implantable artificial pancreas intended to reduce the day-to-day burden of type 1 diabetes management.
Its core product under development is the Portal Pump, an implantable, fully closed-loop insulin delivery system designed to integrate with modern implantable Continuous Glucose Monitoring (ICGM) sensors to automate dosing. Unlike conventional subcutaneous pumps, Portal says the Portal Pump delivers insulin into the peritoneal space so the liver “soon receives it” to better approximate physiologic hepatic first pass, effectively acting as an artificial pancreas with more physiologic insulin delivery.
This week, Portal received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for the Portal Pump system, a status intended to speed development and review for potentially more effective therapies addressing unmet needs.