Sanofi has joined forces with the owner of Google to embark on a joint venture called Onduo, which will focus on improving lives of people with type 2 diabetes by offering products and services that reduce the issues associated with the condition, and by providing more insight into the disease.
Last year, Google’s company structure underwent a huge rearrangement; a parent company called Alphabet was formed, which now owns Google, and the many different projects that Google used to work on have been converted into individual companies.
One of these companies, Verily Life Sciences, is a health focussed institution which has been working on products such as contact lenses that can measure blood glucose levels, and a spoon that can counteract hand tremors and help people with diseases like Parkinson’s Disease to eat.
The joint venture that Verily is entering into with Sanofi, Onduo, “will initially focus on the type 2 diabetes community, specifically on developing solutions that could help people make better decisions about their day to day health, ranging from improved medication management to improved habits and goals,” according to Sanofi and Verily.
“The company will leverage Verily’s (formerly Google Life Sciences) experience in miniaturized electronics, analytics, and consumer software development, and Sanofi’s clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes.”
Onduo is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and will be led by CEO Joshua Riff, who said that there are two main goals that Onduo want to focus on. “One, can we give [people with type 2 diabetes] tools to remove the friction in their lives…. Number two, can we give them better insight.”
