There are medicines that people take to deal with health-related issues such as arthritis, asthma, and so on. Sometimes they come in pills, sometimes they come in injection form, and so on. If you’ve ever been sick you get the idea. However the future of medicine could be more than just pills. It could be implantable devices that help you manage certain ailments.This is exactly the kind of thing that GSK and Google will be teaming up to do. Or to be more specific, it won’t be Google per se, but rather Verily who was formerly known as Google Life Sciences and is currently a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Together both companies are expected to form a new company called Galvani Bioelectrics, with the goal being to develop bioelectric medicines.
According to GSK’s press release, “Bioelectronic medicine is 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.”
This partnership will see GSK own a 55% share in the new company, while Verily will hold the remaining 45%. It will also see both parent companies invest £540 million over the course of 7 years. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Google express interest in medicine/health. A couple of years ago the company came up with a contact lens that would monitor the glucose levels of its wearer.