Last year in the month of August, Google restructured its business and created a holding company Alphabet Inc. Alphabet controls multiple independent companies. Google Life Sciences business now called Verily has generated lots of buzz amongst investors. Verily with its unique business model is promising to reinvent healthcare. This post is written to understand- “How Google life Sciences, now called Verily is reinventing healthcare and how does it make money”. We have also proposed how Verily might make money in the future?

How Is Google Life Sciences Verily Reinventing Healthcare?

Google’s Verily, which means “truly,” mission is “to bring together technology and life sciences to uncover new truths about health and disease.” Conard, Verily’s CEO recently announced: “we could change the system in healthcare from being reactive to proactive”. Lets us understand what does he mean by Proactive Healthcare? Following graphic highlights how Verily with its proactive healthcare approach is going to reinvent the healthcare.

Understanding Current Reactive Healthcare Management Approach

In the reactive health care system, patient approaches the healthcare provider to get rid of disease symptoms. Through a battery of diagnostic tests, the patient is identified for the disease that she needs to be treated for. The patient then undergoes the treatment that might involve surgery, medication, and rehabilitation. To prevent the recurrence of same or other related diseases, she is enrolled in multiple disease awareness and wellness programs. This reactive healthcare system aided by the new age digital solutions has great potential in reducing the disease burden. Infrastructure supporting this reactive healthcare system has become a multi-billion industry with huge funding being poured every year to support this system. All these measures, however, have failed to curb the multiple failures in the system. We continue to witness increasing burden on both healthcare cost and quality of life. Google life sciences, with its team of software engineers, analytics experts, and user experience designers is promising to redefine the current reactive healthcare to proactive healthcare. Let us try to understand this system in detail.

Understanding Verily’s Proactive Healthcare Management Approach

To make proactive healthcare a reality, Verily is working on changing the ways we diagnose, treat and manage a disease. This proactive healthcare system is built on the following foundations:

Establish the disease baseline to stratify the risk

Set up proactive healthcare diagnosis standards

Create innovative therapies for Life Sciences companies to treat the diseases

Build the disease management ecosystem

Verily is already working on baseline study for human health to collect biological, genetic, behavioral, and environmental data. This study will help Verily understand human variability to create personalized treatments. Verily is using its proprietary nanoparticle diagnostics and wearable detectors to identify the state of disease. This shift from reagent based diagnosis of disease, to biomarker and nanoparticle platform assisted diagnosis, is nothing short of a star trek fantasy that is being made real by Verily. Verily is also working with leading life sciences companies to create innovative smart devices & personalized medicines.

We believe that in the long run, Verily will offer its capabilities to establish disease management ecosystem. This ecosystem will help Verily deliver Patient Management Services (PMS). Before we get into the future of PMS, let us try to understand- “How Verily Makes Money currently?”

How Google Life Sciences Verily Makes Money?

Verily is not in the business of making the science fictions come true. Verily business is built on strong fundamentals to become the R&D partners of the Life Sciences companies. Following graphic highlights how Verily is making money currently?

Currently, Verily Has Two Revenue Streams.

How Verily Makes Money From Researchers? Verily collaborates with scientific researchers and offers its Healthcare platform, analytical and software capabilities to build disease management therapies. Verily in return receives researcher’s time, patient data and the research grant from sponsoring agencies.

How Verily Makes Money From Life Sciences Companies? Verily collaborates with both Pharma and MedTech companies and offers its Healthcare platform, disease data, and software to build disease management therapies. Verily in return receives payment for developing the disease management therapies. It has already collaborated with Novartis, Dexcom, and Sanofi for diabetes partnership. It is developing contact lens to monitor diabetes using tears for Novartis. Verily is using the same technology to build bandage-sized glucose monitors for Dexcom and helping Sanofi collect, analyze and understand this information to build more integrated ways to treat diabetes. Verily has also partnered with Biogen to develop wearable sensors for Multiple sclerosis. It has also partnered with Johnson & Johnson to develop medical robots through a joint venture. Verily is also working on Heart disease and mental health in a couple of other initiatives.



How Will Verily Make Money In The Future?

Given its strong technology background and understanding of product management, we believe in the long run Verily will start building the Patient Management Ecosystem to offer Patient Management Services. Verily will offer its Healthcare platform, disease data, application software & development tools to developers to build patient management services. These services will be served on-demand and will offer continuous pay per usage service revenue to Verily in the future.

Conclusion

We are asked this question in various forums “Which company will disrupt and reinvent the healthcare?” Our analysis suggests that future of healthcare is proactive healthcare and Verily is the company that will both disrupt and reinvent the healthcare.



