They will invest up to £540m over seven years, subject to completion of various milestones.
To be called Galvani Bioelectronics, and to be headquartered in at an existing GSK R&D facility, the parent companies will contribute existing intellectual property rights. GSK will hold a 55% equity interest and Verily 45%. There will be a second research hub at Verily’s facilities in South San Francisco.
Galvani will initially employ around 30 scientists, engineers and clinicians, and will fund and integrate a range of collaborations with both parent companies, academia and other R&D companies.
The focuse will be ‘bioelectronic medicine’, which GSK is defining as using miniaturised, implantable devices that can modify electrical signals that pass along nerves in the body.
Irregular or altered impulses occur in many illnesses, it said, and the vision is to attach devices to individual nerves to analyse and correct them.
GSK has been been looking at tackling chronic diseases using bioelectronic medicine since 2012 “and believes certain conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and asthma could potentially be treated using these devices,” said GSK. “The new company will bring together world class drug discovery and development expertise and deep understanding of disease biology with 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 said GSK.
“The first generation implants that Galvani will be developing over the coming seven years, they’re likely to be around the size of a medical pill. The aim eventually, in the years following that, would be to get these devices as small as, or smaller than, a grain of rice,” a GSK spokesman told Electronics Weekly.
GSK v-p of Bioelectronics R&D Kris Famm has been appointed president of Galvani.
This agreement is subject to closing conditions including antitrust approvals, and is expected to close before the end of 2016.
