Lured by the opportunity to bring a new diabetes insulin pump to market, physician-scientist Trang Ly joined the Insulet Corporation in Acton in 2016. She helped oversee successful clinical trials in both children and adults that led to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of “Omnipod 5” for children as young as two in 2022. Today, this latest generation of Omnipod products is available in 14 countries, helping people daily to manage life-threatening, chronic diabetes.
“Around that time, a lot was happening in diabetes technology,” says Ly. “Just 10 years ago, when I was in clinical practice, I would send children home, asking parents to prick their fingers four to six times a day [to test blood sugar levels] and give multiple insulin injections. Now that’s considered barbaric. These days we have wonderful technology like sensors that people can wear on their arms to detect blood glucose levels continuously and feed into an insulin pump, such as the Omnipod product.”
In what’s known as a “closed loop system,” the Omnipod 5 communicates wirelessly with continuous glucose monitoring systems, such as Dexcom, to automatically regulate insulin and alert the user through a smart phone or watch if blood sugar is too low. It mimics how a healthy pancreas works, providing basal or background insulin and bolus or meal-related insulin. The small device can be worn up to three days before needing replacement.
The Insulet Corp., located at 100 Nagog Park, is the largest employer in Acton. Three shifts of employees work daily in its highly automated manufacturing facility to produce pods. Insulet has a work force of 1,300 in Massachusetts and 6,000 globally.
“I’m very driven,” says Ly, who as the company’s senior vice president and chief medical officer oversees research, testing, and evaluation of technologies. “Our company’s mission is to improve the lives of people with diabetes and to reduce the burden for them and their families and everyone in their orbit.”
A native of Australia (with an accent to prove it), Ly earned her medical degree from the University of Western Australia in Perth, then trained in pediatrics. During a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology, she also completed a PhD evaluating the use of diabetes technology in people with severe hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.
“During my residency,” she says, “I spent a lot of time in the emergency room taking care of very sick children with diabetes, and families brand new to the diagnosis of diabetes. That’s what piqued my interest in pediatric endocrinology, and why I pursued additional training in that area.”
After 10 years in medical practice in Australia, Ly headed to Stanford University in California as a visiting scholar and conducted clinical research in the department of endocrinology, then joined the Stanford faculty in 2015. The following year, she decided to take the job at Insulet and move with her husband and firstborn son to Massachusetts. Her second son was born in 2018 — the year Insulet completed building its new headquarters in Acton.
Entrepreneur John L. Brooks III started the company in 2000 after his three-year-old son was diagnosed with diabetes. At the time, the only product on the market involved injections and tubing, which could tangle. That inspired him to create an adhesive patch that could be applied to the body and deliver insulin directly through a straw-like cannula inserted under the skin.
“The unique thing about our product is that there’s no tubing,” says Ly. “It’s like the difference between wired headphones and AirPods.”
In addition to being the only tubeless pump on the market, Omnipod 5 is the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system approved by the FDA for the treatment of both Type 1 (formerly known as juvenile) diabetes and Type 2 (formerly called adult-onset) diabetes. And unlike other insulin pumps, Omnipod is waterproof, so the user can shower, bathe, or swim while wearing it.
Acton resident Amanda Abramovich is a “podder,” having used multiple generations of the Omnipod for the last 18 years. Her doctor diagnosed her with Type 1 diabetes at age 29, based on symptoms of extreme fatigue and sugar in her urine. She thinks of herself as lucky, because the Omnipod had recently been put on the market. “I was one of their original customers,” she says. “At the time, I was planning a big trip to Australia and Thailand, so I was really eager to get on the pump before I started traveling.
“The Omnipod is an amazing product for me and so many people,” she says. “The Omnipod 5, which is a closed loop system, reduces the amount of thinking and management you have to do for your diabetes. It reduces the stress of making decisions based on your blood sugar. That helps with better outcomes and makes you feel better about yourself.”
Omnipod products are available in 25 countries around the world. Insulet recently expanded access to Omnipod 5 to Australia, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland. And a growing number of glucose monitoring sensors are now compatible with the insulin pump. “We work very closely with our product development team to make sure that the next generation that we develop meets the needs of our customers,” says Ly.
Want to help researchers find new treatments for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes? Insulet collaborates on clinical trials with the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
Nancy Knoblock Hunton is a volunteer writer for the Acton Exchange, specializing in profiles of people who have made contributions to the community.