Col­lege ath­lete deals and phar­ma? Dex­com tests the wa­ters in a first move that opens new spokesper­son doors for in­dus­try

Al­most half of adults with type 1 di­a­betes say they felt like quit­ting sports as a kid be­cause of their health con­di­tion – and one in five end­ed up do­ing so. Dex­com wants to en­cour­age the next gen­er­a­tion to stick with sports, so it’s lined up a first-ever name, im­age, like­ness (NIL) col­lege ath­lete pro­gram to show­case 14 play­ers liv­ing with type 1 di­a­betes.

The most­ly Di­vi­sion I men and women ath­letes who criss­cross a range of sports — from base­ball, bas­ket­ball and foot­ball to cheer­lead­ing, lacrosse and swim­ming — all use Dex­com’s con­tin­u­ous glu­cose mon­i­tor­ing de­vices. Called Dex­com U, the pro­gram aims to bring on a new class of ath­letes every year who will co-cre­ate con­tent on so­cial me­dia and serve as role mod­el ad­vo­cates for oth­ers liv­ing with di­a­betes. They’ll post about their day-to-day lives, how they train and prep for game day and how they use the Dex­com CGM to un­der­stand their di­a­betes state.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER