High achiever

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. - It's not uncommon for mail order diabetes providers to offer supplemental products for their customers, but American Diabetes Wholesale (ADW) took it a step further.

The company in August debuted Diabetic Defense, an all-natural blood glucose-lowering supplement. It's the second supplement and fifth product that ADW has developed under its Diachieve brand, which it launched in 2010.

"For this company to grow and prosper we needed a certain level of independence," said Larry Edelson, president and CEO. "We could no longer grow at substantial rates being totally dependent upon other people's products."

The other products in the Diachieve line: A menthol foot cream to treat neuropathy; a skin and body cream; a 5-gram glucose tablet; and an Omega-3 supplement.

For all of the products, ADW partnered with outside professionals to develop and bring them to market, said Edelson. Still, the provider was involved in every step of the process, he said.

"We wanted to control our own destiny," he said. "That's why we put the time and the resources into developing Diachieve."

Thinking outside the box is nothing new for the eight-year-old company, which got its start offering lower-cost supplies for the un- and underinsured. ADW, which offers products ranging from lancets to insulin pumps, now has about 200,000 customers.

The new product line has also allowed ADW to tap into a new market: people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

"More and more people are concerned (about their health)," said Edelson. "Their sugars are rising; they are pre-diabetic. They say, 'Maybe I better do something, and try something natural.'"