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 The device for diabetics would measure glucose in tear fluid and
send the data wirelessly to a mobile device, Novartis said. The
technology is potentially life-changing for many diabetics, who
prick their fingers as many as 10 times daily to check their body's
production of the sugar.
Success would allow Novartis to compete in a global blood-sugar
tracking market that is expected to be worth over $12 billion by
2017, according to research firm GlobalData. Diabetes afflicts an
estimated 382 million people worldwide.
The second approach is for presbyopia, in which aging eyes have
trouble focusing on close objects. Novartis hopes the lens
technology will help restore the eye's ability to focus, almost like
the autofocus on a camera.
Non-invasive sensors, microchips and other miniaturized electronics
would be embedded into the contact lenses.
Under the deal with Google, Novartis's Alcon eyecare unit will
further develop and commercialize the lens technologies designed by
Google[x], the American company's development team.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The alliance comes as drugmakers explore ways for technology to
reshape healthcare, helping patients monitor their own health and
lowering the costs of managing chronic diseases.
In turn, technology firms such as Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co
and Google are trying to find health-related applications for
wearable devices.
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Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said he hoped a product could
be on the market in about five years' time.
"This really brings high-technology and combines it with biology and
that's a very exciting combination for us," Jimenez told Reuters.
"I think you're going to see more and more areas of unmet medical
need where companies like Novartis are going to take a
non-traditional approach to addressing those unmet needs."
Although the licensing deal is just for the eye, Jimenez said the
drugmaker was also thinking about how technology could be applied in
other areas, such as remote patient monitoring in heart failure.
(Additional reporting by Katharina Bart and Paul Arnold; editing by
Maria Sheahan and Tom Pfeiffer)
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