Another major milestone for Ed Damiano’s iLet device, for people with type 1 diabetes
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Meta—the Nasdaq is home to some of the world’s biggest tech firms. And now the famed stock exchange is also host to a fast-growing company that took root in a Boston University lab two decades ago—and that has a very personal backstory.
Beta Bionics, the maker of the iLet Bionic Pancreas, an automated insulin delivery device for people with type 1 diabetes, just completed its initial public offering, allowing anyone to buy shares in the company. The iLet was invented in the BU lab of Ed Damiano, a College of Engineering research professor of biomedical engineering who cofounded Beta Bionics as a public benefit corporation in 2015; he first began work on the device in 2002—inspired by his infant son’s battle with diabetes. The company, which is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “BBNX,” hopes going public will help raise funds for product development and infrastructure expansion.
“It’s a major milestone that will allow us to grow faster and more easily raise capital than we probably could as a private company,” says Damiano, also Beta Bionics’ executive chair of the board. “And one of the key beneficiaries of that is the type 1 diabetes community. Whatever we can do to make Beta Bionics a greater force for good, by bringing more world-class technology to more people who need it, is good for that community.”