GSK攜手谷歌創建生物電子公司

GlaxoSmithKline has teamed up with Alphabet, Google’s holding company, to treat disease through miniature implants that affect electrical signalling along nerves, with the aim of creating a powerful new force in bioelectronics.

葛蘭素史克(GlaxoSmithKline，簡稱GSK)與谷歌(Google)持股公司Alphabet合作，將通過影響神經電信號的微型植入設備治療疾病，力求在生物電子領域締造一股強大的新生力量。

GSK and Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences — formerly Google Life Sciences — are setting up Galvani Bioelectronics to develop and commercialise bioelectronic medicines. They plan to invest ￡540m over seven years in the jointly owned company, as well as contributing existing intellectual property.

GSK與Alphabet旗下的Verily Life Sciences（前身爲谷歌生命科學(Google Life Sciences)）將聯手創建Galvani Bioelectronics，開發生物電子醫療手段並將其商業化。兩家公司計劃在7年時間裏向這家合資公司投資5.40億英鎊，並貢獻現有的知識產權。

GSK will own 55 per cent of the new UK-based business and Verily the remaining 45 per cent. Galvani will be based at GSK’s main UK research centre in Stevenage.

新公司總部將設在英國，GSK將持有該公司55%股權，Verily將持有其餘45%股權。Galvani的總部將設在GSK位於英國斯蒂夫尼奇(Stevenage)的主要研究中心。

Bioelectronics is a new medical field that aims to tackle a wide range of chronic diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes and asthma, with tiny computerised implants. This approach could represent a third way of treating disease, alongside conventional medicines and vaccines developed through chemistry and biology.

生物電子是一個新的醫療領域，致力於通過電腦化的微型植入設備治療多種慢性病，例如關節炎、糖尿病和哮喘。這種方法可能代表着第三種治療疾病的方法，其他兩種方法是傳統藥物以及通過化學和生物技術開發的疫苗。

Moncef Slaoui, who has championed GSK’s bioelectronics research since the company started working in the field in 2012, said: “Many of the processes of the human body are controlled by electrical signals firing between the nervous system and the body’s organs, which may become distorted in many chronic diseases.

自2012年GSK開始涉足生物電子領域以來一直領導GSK生物電子研究的蒙塞夫•斯拉維(Moncef Slaoui)表示：“人體很多過程由在神經系統和身體器官之間發射的電子信號控制，這些信號可能會因多種慢性病而失真。”