GlaxoSmithKline links with Alphabet on new bioelectronics company

GlaxoSmithKline announced a new agreement on Monday, with Verily Life Sciences - formerly Google Life Sciences, an Alphabet company - to form Galvani Bioelectronics.

The FTSE 100 firm said the partnership would enable the research, development and commercialisation of bioelectronic medicines, with GSK holding a 55% equity interest in the new jointly owned company and Verily holding 45%.

Galvani Bioelectronics will be headquartered in the UK, with the parent companies contributing existing intellectual property rights and an investment of up to £540m over seven years, subject to successful completion of various discovery and development milestones.

The agreement to establish Galvani Bioelectronics represents an important next step in GSK's bioelectronics research, its board explained.

It said 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 miniaturisation 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 miniaturised, precision devices.

“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,” said Moncef Slaoui, GSK's chairman of global vaccines.

“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 miniaturised devices attached to individual nerves.

“If successful, this approach offers the potential for a new therapeutic modality alongside traditional medicines and vaccines,” Slaoui added.

Verily’s chief technology officer Brian Otis called it an “ambitious collaboration”, which will allow the two companies to combines forces and have a “huge impact” on the 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 miniaturised technologies.

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

Galvani Bioelectronics will be headquartered within GSK’s global research and development centre at Stevenage, the board confirmed, with a second research hub at Verily’s facilities in San Francisco.

It will initially employ around 30 expert scientists, engineers and clinicians, with Kris Famm, GSK's vice president of bioelectronics R&D, appointed president of the new company.

A seven-member board, chaired by Moncef Slaoui, will also be appointed and will include Andrew Conrad, CEO of Verily.

The new company will be fully consolidated in GSK's financial statements.