Novartis signs up for Google smart lens

volume 32 NumBeR 9 SePTemBeR 2014 nature biotechnology Google’s latest generation of wearable technology is a ‘smart’ contact lens that may eventually provide noninvasive blood glucose monitoring for diabetics, and correct vision in individuals with presbyopia. That’s why Alcon, the eye-care division of Swiss pharma Novartis, signed up to co-develop the smart lens in July, allegedly outbidding over 100 other interested parties. As healthcare and technology rapidly converge, more tie-ups like this one will likely follow. Consumer electronics giant Apple, too, is said to be working on a smart watch whose health sensor data could include blood glucose levels. Technology moves faster than traditional drug development: the smart lens “will take a few years, but not a decade” to hit the market, predicts George Jeff George, division head, Alcon. Details of the deal were not disclosed. The smart lens technology developed at Google[x], a team within Google of Mountain View, California, comprises a lens made of conventional lens hydrogel material with a tiny wireless chip, a miniaturized glucose sensor and a tiny battery embedded between two layers in the periphery of the lens, avoiding the iris and pupil. A pin-hole in the lens allows tear fluid to seep into the sensor, generating blood glucose readings that can be transmitted to a smartphone device and, potentially, directly to a physician. But the extent to which glucose in blood and tear fluid are correlated remains unclear. Also, the lag between glucose highs in circulation peaks and in tears, or factors such as eye irritation, could be problematic, warns Tony Cass, professor of chemical biology at Imperial College London, who helped develop the first electronic finger-stick glucose sensor 30 years ago. Alcon’s George emphasized that the technology is at the “very early stages” of development. Still, the hope is that once-a-second readings will allow an accurate measure of systemic blood glucose and thus better glucose control. Even frequent (5–6 times a day) finger pricking—as well as being inconvenient—can miss blood sugar highs and lows, according novartis signs up for Google smart lens