Google’s Verily joint ventures with GSK into bioelectronics (UK/US)

August 3, 2016 | by

Verily, the Alphabet (Google) life sciences research group, and GlaxoSmithKline are partnering in a joint venture that may replace drugs for disease with micro-electronic implantable devices. GSK will own 55 percent of Galvani Bioelectronics, with Verily owning 45 percent. They have pledged an investment of £540 million in the new UK-based business over 7 years, as well as contributing intellectual property rights to Galvani. Most of the staff will be at GSK in Stevenage with some at Verily’s HQ in South San Francisco, and led by Kris Famm, formerly GSK’s vice president of bioelectronics R&D. The deal is expected to close by end of year.

According to Business Insider UK, GSK has been involved with bioelectronics for four years. It’s defined as “a relatively new scientific field that aims to tackle a wide range of chronic diseases using miniaturised, implantable devices that can modify electrical signals that pass along nerves in the body, including irregular or altered impulses that occur in many illnesses.” The diseases that are being targeted are inflammatory, metabolic and endocrine disorders, including type 2 diabetes. According to the MedCityNews interview of Verily’s CTO Brian Otis, the systems will be closed loop where the devices listen to the nerve signals, do real-time signal processing and send the optimized signal back to the nerve to restore healthy function. GSK has the diagnostic and biologic expertise, Verily has the device smarts. Also Mobihealthnews, Recode

Google’s Verily rolls along. Bumpily? (updated)

April 6, 2016 | by

Several articles of late have reported on the Google Alphabet life sciences company Verily. By fall last year, they had developed partnerships with Novartis-Alcon on development of a smart contact lens (for measuring glucose), plus Dexcom, Abbvie and Biogen. STAT, a health/medicine news website owned by Boston Globe Media which is still in beta, has a well-researched article that details, seemingly with a lot of inside scoop, its current turmoil. 12 top engineering and science executives have taken a powder. Some of the execs date back to the Google X days; most have fled back to Mother Google, others to Amazon or to life sciences competitors. STAT: “No similar brain drain has occurred at Calico, another ambitious Google spinoff, which is focused on increasing the human lifespan.” The reasons are the apparently abrasive CEO Andrew Conrad, depicted as ambitious, fickle and moody–and the constant shifting of support from approved projects to short-term initiatives ‘that show little promise’. Google’s bold bid to transform medicine hits turbulence.

Update: STAT published today information on a possible conflict of interest in Verily awarding a short-term research contract to a luxury health clinic, California Health & Longevity Institute, where Dr Conrad holds a majority ownership. According to the publication, it has no documented experience with this kind of work. The clinic will gather, in a 200-person ‘feasibility study’ for the larger Baseline study, genetic, molecular, clinical, and other data. According to Dr Conrad, it was done “Because I think it’s cool. Because it’s super efficient to have everything in one spot.” What may not be cool to the participants is that Baseline is already planning to sell the data to pharmaceutical companies–with patient consent, of course, in a document not yet public. Google’s biotech venture hit by ethical concerns