Google inks deal to build tiny blood glucose monitoring devices

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google has inked a deal with healthcare firm Dexcom to build miniature blood glucose monitoring devices for diabetics, The Next Web reports.

The company plans to design and manufacture Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) wearables the size of a dime. To do so, it’s teaming up with Google’s Life Sciences division, which is now being spun off as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet, creation of which was announced a couple of days ago.

In exchange for Google’s miniaturization know-how, Dexcom will make an initial upfront payment of $35 million in its common stock, R&D milestone payments up to $65 million in DexCom’s choice of cash or stock, and revenue-based royalties between 5 and 9 percent once the products are launched and have achieved a certain level of revenue.

Andrew Conrad, head of the Life Sciences team at Google, said: “We’re committed to developing new technologies that will help move health care from reactive to proactive. This collaboration is another step towards expanding monitoring options and making it easier for people with diabetes to proactively manage their health.”

Life Sciences is also working on a way to detect diseases early with the use of smart nanoparticles that will move through a patient’s bloodstream and identify signs of nascent health problems.