3M introduces skin-sticking adhesive that enables wearable monitors to last nearly a month

A new product has been developed by 3M that has major adhesive capabilities. The latest addition to 3M’s adhesives product line has been made to stay in place for almost a whole month (4 weeks). According to the company, this product has increased the medical devices’ wear time standard two-fold, which has been two weeks for a long time now.

3M is a multinational conglomerate that is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is currently operating in numerous fields like consumer goods, worker safety, healthcare, and industry. It was founded 121 years ago in 1902 in Two Harbors, Minnesota.

This is 3M’s second product that can last for longer than the standard two-week period, the first being an adhesive tape that could last up to 3 weeks and was introduced last spring.

According to the manufacturer, this 28-day adhesive is being sold as 3M Medical Tape 4578. It is manufactured to uphold its stickiness for a whole year in storage even if there is no protective liner. The main idea behind the development of this polyester fabric tape was to keep the health sensors, monitors, and other wearables stuck to the wearer for a period of time so that health can be tracked without hindrance.

Currently, the adhesive sensors that are used in glucose monitoring systems such as Dexcom’s new G7 or Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre 3 need to be changed every 2 weeks (between 10 and 14 days). Vital sign trackers by BioIntelliSense are capable to monitor health for a period of 3 months while the adhesive needs to be changed once a week. If the adhesives on these devices were to be replaced by 3M Medical Tape 4578, there would be fewer disruptions during the tracking time and make the entire process easier for the device wearers due to the longer-lasting capabilities of the adhesive. The cost of using the devices could also potentially be lowered due to the use of fewer moving parts.

Taking it one step further, 3M also offers medtech makers an online tool called ‘Find My Adhesive’ which pairs the users’ devices with the most suitable adhesive materials.

This new product’s launch has come following 3M’s healthcare tech business being detached into a stand-alone entity. According to the plan that was announced last summer the new separate entity will include 3M’s whole healthcare portfolio, which comprises oral care, wound care, biopharma healthcare products, and healthcare IT. The remaining segments of the Saint Paul-based multinational conglomerate will be consumer products, transportation and electronics, and industrial. The company’s food safety segment will be continued under a new label which is being called the ‘New 3M’ amidst the change.

According to the 2022 financial report published a couple of weeks ago, healthcare’s share in net sales was over $8.4B. Even though it is a 2% fall from the sales total of 2021, this segment showed an over 3% rise in organic sales which is a lot more than the company’s other segments. The year-on-year organic sales changes for the other segments were between -1% and 1%, significantly lower than healthcare.

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