Dive Brief:
- Google and pharmaceutical company Sanofi SA announced they will work together to build tools for diabetes management and treatment.
- The search engine giant already has a collaboration with drugmaker Novartis AG to develop contact lenses to help diabetics track their glucose levels.
- The International Diabetes Federation predicts diabetes will affect 592 million people worldwide by 2035.
Dive Insight:
Google continues its forays into the healthcare arena with the Sanofi agreement. In August, executives specificially mentioned healthcare as one of the areas of focus while annoucing Google would become part of a larger umbrella company.
Google's life sciences unit has been involved in a number of similar partnerships such as Biogen to study multiple sclerosis, DexCo to develop smaller glucose monitoring devices and the aforementioned deal with Novartis.
Sanofi is one of the big players in the diabetes care arena, with diabetes products generating more than $2 billion in sales in the second quarter of this year.