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GSK and Verily to form a new venture to develop bioelectric medicines

GlaxoSmithKline and Alphabet unit Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) made a splash yesterday when they announced the launch of Galvani Bioelectronics, a company that will build upon GSK’s three years of work to develop tiny nerve-altering devices that might one day be used instead of drugs to treat a variety of diseases. The two companies will invest up to £540 million (more than $700 million) over the next seven years, they said.

Galvani Bioelectronics will be headquartered within GSK’s global R&D centre at Stevenage in the UK, with a second research hub at Verily’s facilities in South San Francisco. It will initially employ around 30 expert scientists, engineers and clinicians, and will fund and integrate a broad range of collaborations with both parent companies, academia and other R&D companies. GSK and Verily believe this collaborative way of working will rapidly accelerate the development of bioelectronic medicines.

Bioelectronic medicine is a relatively new scientific field that aims to tackle a wide range of chronic diseases using miniaturized, implantable devices that can modify electrical signals that pass along nerves in the body, includin

g irregular or altered impulses that occur in many illnesses.

GSK has been working on bioelectronic medicines since 2012 in a push to develop new patentable treatments as its Advair respiratory treatment faces competition from generic versions. It has invested $50m (£38m) in a venture capital fund for bioelectronics and provided funding for scientists outside the company working in the field.

The new company will bring together GSK’s world class drug discovery and development expertise and deep understanding of disease biology with Verily’s world leading technical expertise in the miniaturization of low power electronics, device development, data analytics and software development for clinical applications. Initial work will centre on establishing clinical proofs of principle in inflammatory, metabolic and endocrine disorders, including type 2 diabetes, where substantial evidence already exists in animal models; and developing associated miniaturized, precision devices.

Moncef Slaoui, GSK’s Chairman of Global Vaccines, who was instrumental in establishing GSK’s investments in the field of bioelectronics, will chair the board of the new company. He said:
“Many of the processes of the human body are controlled by electrical signals firing between the nervous system and the body’s organs, which may become distorted in many chronic diseases. Bioelectronic medicine’s vision is to employ the latest advances in biology and technology to interpret this electrical conversation and to correct the irregular patterns found in disease states, using miniaturized devices attached to individual nerves. If successful, this approach offers the potential for a new therapeutic modality alongside traditional medicines and vaccines.”

“This agreement with Verily to establish Galvani Bioelectronics signals a crucial step forward in GSK’s bioelectronics journey, bringing together health and tech to realize a shared vision of miniaturized, precision electrical therapies. Together, we can rapidly accelerate the pace of progress in this exciting field, to develop innovative medicines that truly speak the electrical language of the body.”

Kris Famm, GSK’s head of bioelectronics, said an advantage of bioelectronics would be that researchers should be able to apply it to more diseases as the technology develops. He said working with Verily would speed up this process and that he hoped to conduct the first tests on humans within three years.

Famm said: “We have to figure out how to interface devices with the small nerves in our bodies to find a new way to deliver therapies. We will build the tiny devices that lie at the centre of bringing these treatments to potential. The smaller the devices the less they will need to be charged and the more precise they are and the more attractive this will be as an intervention. Hopefully in 10 years there will be a treatment option where your doctor will say ‘Why don’t you go for bioelectronic?’, and a surgeon will do a little procedure and it will help the organ to do what it should be doing.”

Galvani will be named after Luigi Aloisio Galvani, an 18th-century scientist whose study of a frog’s reactions paved the way for the study of neuroscience. The companies hope the joint venture will be in operation by the end of this year once it has been approved by US competition regulators.

Brian Otis, Verily’s Chief Technology Officer, said: “This is an ambitious collaboration allowing GSK and Verily to combine forces and have a huge impact on an emerging field. Bioelectronic medicine is a new area of therapeutic exploration, and we know that success will require the confluence of deep disease biology expertise and new highly miniaturized technologies.

“This partnership provides an opportunity to further Verily’s mission by deploying our focused expertise in low power, miniaturized therapeutics and our data analytics engine to potentially address many disease areas with greater precision with the goal of improving outcomes.”

Peace-lover, creative, smart and intelligent. Prapti is a foodie, music buff and a travelholic. After leaving a top-notch full time corporate job, she now works as an Online Editor for Biotecnika. Keen on making a mark in the scientific publishing industry, she strives to find a work-life balance. Follow her for more updates!