“Onduo’s mission is to help people with diabetes live full, healthy lives by developing comprehensive solutions that combine devices, software, medicine, and professional care to enable simple and intelligent disease management”, Sanofi and Verily, which was previously known as Google Life Science, said.
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“As it will initially consist of connecting already existing products, we can expect the first innovations to arrive more quickly than if it was a pharmaceutical research program starting from scratch”, the head of Sanofi’s diabetes business Stefan Oelrich told Agence France-Presse.
Sanofi and Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) appointed Joshua Riff, a senior executive at United Health Group’s (UNH – Analyst Report) Optum, as the chief executive officer of Onduo.
Almost 400 million people worldwide have diabetes, with the type 2 version accounting for more than 90% of cases.
Later, the company will also focus on the development of solutions for the type 1 diabetes community, which will help them to prevent the onset of the disease. Reportedly, the companies plan to invest $500 million in the partnership.
No financial details were disclosed but the spokeswoman said Sanofi had invested $248 million in the joint venture, in which the French group controls a 50% stake. “There’s increased competition on price”. The Diabetes franchise was down 3.2% to €1.9 billion, reflecting lower sales of Lantus in the USA due to a lower average net price. The French pharmaceutical company is depending on its new medicines such as Toujeu insulin to help offset its declining revenue from Lantus.
In order to show the difference between the treatments, Oelrich said that Sanofi has been carrying out the “biggest real-world evidence” programs ever for Toujeo.
Lantus in August was replaced on CVS Health’s 2017 list of covered drugs by Eli Lilly & Company’s Basaglar, a cheaper version of the insulin that is scheduled to be sold in the USA starting in December. In August, CVS made a decision to remove Lantus from its list of covered drugs and replaced it with Basaglar.
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Oelrich said that competition in the diabetes market will be evident due to the presence of biosimilars. “It’s our job to make sure that we have a convincing value story behind that because not all these products are the same”.
