Novartis Agrees to Develop Google’s Smart Lens Technology

Google has just announced that the European drug maker Novartis has agreed to develop its Smart Lens Technology. Novartis has also revealed that Alcon, its eye care unit, has signed a deal to license so-called smart lens technology from Google, so don’t worry; things are not just a rumor. Financial terms were not disclosed, but we have high hopes for the future knowing that this Google contact lens  has been designed to enable diabetes patients to manage their disease.

Improving the Quality of life for Millions of People

We are saying that as long as the smart lens uses the patients tear fluid to measure glucose levels and a miniaturized WiFi transmitter to share the results with a mobile device (here we have more details). In these conditions, it is more than obviously that information about blood sugar levels could be uploaded to smartphone devices and used by both doctors and patients to monitor the data almost in real-time, just as Google has revealed in a statement when the company released its prototype in January.

Sergey Brin, a Google founder, said the company’s smart lens technology could actually “help improve the quality of life for millions of people”, so why not taking advantage of that?

Novartis and Google: Terms of the Agreement

As part of the agreement, Alcon said it would look to create products by using this Google prototype smart contact lens, but neither of the two companies specifies how the data would be transmitted.

Moreover, we still don’t know how long it will take Novartis to develop the technology into actual products, though the company’s chief executive, Joseph Jimenez, seems very optimist: “We are looking forward to working with Google to bring together their advanced technology and our extensive knowledge of biology to meet unmet medical needs.”

Samsung already offered some wearable devices that also allow people to monitor their daily movements, while Apple introduced health-tracking tools that track users heart rates and sleep activities, so now it’s time for Google to make change.

And we are glad that Novartis is ready to help!