Sanofi & Verily Launch a Diabetes Joint Venture
Sanofi, a French multinational pharmaceutical company, and Verily Life Sciences LLC (formerly Google Life Sciences), Alphabet’s U.S.-based company devoted to the study of life sciences, recently announced the launch of Onduo, a joint venture created through collaboration between the two companies in diabetes treatment. Bloomberg and Reuters reported that Sanofi is inventing $248 million in the joint venture, and Verily the equivalent amount.
According to the announcement by Sanofi and Verily, Onduo will “leverage Verily’s experience in miniaturized electrics, analytics, and consumer software development, and Sanofi’s clinical expertise and experience in brining innovative treatments to people living with diabetes.” The announcement also mentioned that 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.”
Stefan Oelrich, head of diabetes at Sanofi, said to the Wall Street Journal that the collaboration between Verily and Sanofi could yield a new product much faster than traditional drug development. He expected Onduo to launch its first product within 2 to 3 years, compared to the roughly 10 years it takes to develop a new medicine.
The joint venture came out about a year after Sanofi and Verily agreed to collaborate to improve care and outcomes for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Onduo is one of many joint ventures that Verily have created in collaboration with other major pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including Galvani Bioelectronics, a joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Verb Surgical, a joint venture with Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon.
Sanofi and Verily appointed Joshua Riff, formerly a senior vice president of prevention and well-being at UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, as the chief executive officer of Onduo. The joint venture is based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.
Abbott to Acquire St. Jude Medical for $25 Billion
A burst of potential acquisitions and consolidations occurred on April 28th in the medical device world, the largest being Abbott Laboratories‘ deal to acquire St. Jude Medical Inc. The deal is for $25 billion dollars and would bring together two of the leaders in cardiac-related medical devices. It allows Abbott to boost its medical-device sector to compete with competitors Medtronic PLC and Boston Scientific Corp.
In particular, according to press releases, St. Jude has a strong portfolio in heart failure devices, atrial fibrillation, and cardiac rhythm management which will complement Abbott’s portfolio of cardiac intervention devices and transcatheter mitral repair. Certain medical devices produced by both companies can be used to alleviate the burden of cardiovascular disease, where more than 40% of adults are expected to experience some sort of cardiovascular disease by 2030.
According to Abbott’s Chairman and CEO, Miles D. White,
“The combined business will have a powerful pipeline ready to deliver next-generation medical technologies and offer improved efficiencies for health care systems around the world.”
However, investors do not appears nearly as confident as Abbott’s stock fell by nearly 6 percent after the acquisition.
Abbott further has a pending deal to acquire the diagnostics company Alere Inc. for $5.8 billion. Other deals included Sanofi SA’s offer to purchase Medivation Inc. and AbbVie Inc.‘s offer to purchase Stemcentrx Inc. These consolidations appear to be attempts to improve negotiating power of the companies with hospitals.
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