back to article Google and GlaxoSmithKline fling £540m at bioelectronic meds firm

Google and drug giant GlaxoSmithKline are spending £540m on a new joint venture, Galvani Bioelectronics, in a bid to develop and commercialise bioelectronic medicine. The partnership between Verily Life Sciences, previously known as Google Life Sciences, and GSK, will boost the British pharmaceutical giant’s efforts in …

  1. RyokuMas
    Devil

    No...

    "... implantable devices to monitor and control electrical signals within the body..."

    Controlled by Google? Over my cold, dead corpse...

    1. Efros

      Re: No...

      "Over my cold, dead corpse..."

      Probably part of the plan.

      1. Ragarath

        Re: No...

        You've seen the Walking Dead right?

        This is how it all began ;)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fantastic Voyage!

    Looks as though they're going to target my hepatitis with tailored advertising:-(

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Deus Ex

    You know there's such a small leap between this, and intentionally releasing a nano-mechanical virus, then selling people the synthetic crypto-vaccine.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Deus Ex

      Or, as its known in business circles, 'The Monsanto Gambit'.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Deus Ex

      You are thinking too big. It is cheaper and easier to just put a stimulator on the endorphin regions (I made that up, it's a hormone?) that only activates when you use Google services...

      Though I think Pokemon Go may have done it first. ;)

      1. You aint sin me, roit
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Deus Ex

        "stimulator on the endorphin regions"

        Isn't that Google Pr0n?

        (Paris, because if you google her... )

  4. Chris G

    Galvani Bioelectronics

    Sounds like something Dr Frankenstein may have come up with if he had decided to monetise re-animation.

    Reading the article though, sounds a lot like Hi-tech, implanted acupuncture. What's next, digital homeopathy?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Current glucose testing methods can be quite painful as it involves pricking the finger to draw blood several times a day."

    No real pain - literally a pinprick at most. You do it to yourself - which always reduces the pain the brain registers compared to someone else doing it to you. Apparently the finger tip can become slightly insensitive to touch if you have to do it several times a day.

    A real benefit for all diabetes sufferers would be if it is measuring glucose levels continuously. Currently that is done by a wire probe inserted under the surface layer of the skin on the abdomen, Results are sent by wireless to a monitor carried on the body. A probe is only effective for a few days - and care has to be taken not to dislodge it prematurely.

    The probe's glucose readings are delayed by several minutes before a change permeates to the test area's fluids. It would be interesting to know if tears are faster or slower indicators of the current glucose level.

    The benefit of continuous glucose measurement is that you can see exactly how your body is reacting to different foods. With strip tests you would have to use several over a two hour period to measure the initial spike and determine the effective Glycaemic Index (GI) of your meal or snack.

    If someone needs insulin to control their glucose level then a continuous monitor could control an insulin pump to give exactly the right dose rate to counter the changing levels. That would make a very big difference to people who live their whole lives with Type 1 Diabetes - with the higher risk of hyperglycemia and the potentially fatal hypoglycemia.

  6. Oengus

    Personal data

    If you thought Google could collect too much personal data with their current tracking, imagine what they could add with this implantable IoT kit. At least with the current mechanisms you can turn it off and stop sending telemetry to Google.

  7. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "Galvani Bioelectronics" - the name alone made me twitch already.

    So yes, there is a lot of potential in this (see above post regarding diabetes as one example).

    But I can't help thinking that G00gle dreams of nanobots in my nervous system that will make me actually click on the ads they show me.

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