Google Life Sciences, the new Google Alphabet standalone division established several weeks ago, today entered into a partnership with Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical firm to expand its research into treatments for diabetes.
Sanofi and Google will pool their expertise in science and tech to work on more integrated ways to collect, analyze and understand information, and in doing so, hopefully make it easier for patients to better manage and lower the cost of the chronic disease.
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas cannot produce, or the body cannot adequately use, insulin. A hormone made by the pancreas, insulin lets glucose from food pass from the blood stream into the cells of the body to produce energy. The latest edition IDF Diabetes Atlas estimates that people living with diabetes will expand from 382 million to 592 million people by 2035.
The new collaboration centers on improving care and outcomes for patients suffering from type 1 and type 2 diabetes, pairing Sanofi’s treatments and devices with Google’s analytics, miniaturized electronics and low-power chips. The companies will work on developing new tools to improve patient care and develop new treatments that combine blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c level indicators, patient-centric information, medication routines and sensor devices.
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Observers hope that the combined technology, sensors, analytics and digital applications will improve how blood sugars are managed, to deliver a better quality of life that lowers complications and reduces the costs and treatment barriers.
Google has a longstanding interest in diabetes, and has been working on other technologies, such as contact lenses that monitor glucose levels. Only two days after its Alphabet announcement, Google teamed up with healthcare firm Dexcom to build tiny blood glucose monitoring devices for diabetics.
Terms of the partnership between Google Life Sciences and Sanofi were not disclosed.
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