GlaxoSmithKline and Alphabet create $715 mln bioelectronics firm
GlaxoSmithKline and Alphabet create $715 mln bioelectronics firm GlaxoSmithKline and Alphabet's life sciences unit are creating a new company focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body, jump-starting a new field of medicine known as bioelectronics. Verily Life Sciences — known as Google's life sciences unit until last year — and Britain's biggest drugmaker will together contribute £540 million ($715.12 million) over seven years to Galvani Bioelectronics, they said on Monday. The new company will be based at GSK's Stevenage research centre north of London, with a second research hub in South San Francisco. GSK first unveiled its ambitions in bioelectronics in a paper in the journal Nature three years ago and believes it is ahead of Big Pharma rivals in developing medicines that use electrical impulses rather than traditional chemicals or proteins. For Verily, the tie-up is the latest sign that Google's ...