Google renames life sciences biz to ‘Verily’

Google (NSDQ:GOOG) parent company Alphabet said yesterday that it renamed its life sciences division to ‘Verily’, presenting a mission of ‘understanding disease on an individual level’ with a focus on prevention and proactive solutions.

The name change comes as the company seeks more visibility in the med-tech world.

“Our mission is to bring together technology and life sciences to uncover new truths about health and disease,” according to Verily’s website.

CEO Andy Conrad, who will stay head of the newly named business, said the name is meant to be aspirational. “Only through the truth are we going to defeat Mother Nature,” Conrat told STAT.  The word itself means ‘truly’ or ‘certainly’.

Verily was previously part of Google X, the company’s experimental laboratory. In August, Google restructured and put the life sciences biz under its new umbrella parent company, Alphabet.

Even before its reorganization and new moniker, the Google department has been hard at work.

Last year, the life sciences business under Google announced a partnership with Novartis‘ (NYSE:NVS) Alcon subsidiary to develop a “smart” contact lenses that can measure blood glucose levels and transmit reports wirelessly.

“We hope this smart contact lens will make it easier for people with diabetes to monitor themselves continuously by measuring the glucose in their tears,” the company writes on its website.

In August, the life sciences biz at Google signed a partnership deal with Dexcom Inc. (NSDQ:DXCM) to jointly develop continuous glucose monitoring products.

The partnership will bring together Google’s miniaturized electronics platform and DexCom’s sensor technology, and looks to develop next-generation CGM devices that will be less expensive than existing technologies, San Diego, Calif.-based DexCom said.

Verily’s research team is also undertaking a multi-year project, known as the Baseline study, that aims to identify traits associated with a healthy human and the changes that take place as individuals transition from health to disease.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

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