Google smart Lenses, to improve sight and monitor health

Google Inc. (GOOG) is teaming up with Swiss drug-maker Novartis AG (NOVN) to develop smart contact lenses with embedded electronics to improve vision and monitor health.

Novartis’s Alcon unit will work with Google’s secretive Google X division on lenses with non-invasive sensors,
microchips and embedded miniaturized electronics to monitor insulin levels for people with diabetes, or to restore the eye’s natural focus in people who can no longer read without glasses, Basel-based Novartis said in a statement today.

No terms of the deal were disclosed. Novartis expects to get the first prototypes by early next year and may start marketing the products in about five years, Novartis Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez said in a phone interview today. Jimenez identified eye care as one of three key divisions, along with branded and generic drugs, in announcing a $28.5 billion restructuring of the company in April that involved selling off the vaccines and animal-health units and buying GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s cancer business. “The promise here is the holy grail of vision care, to be able to replicate the natural functioning of the eye,” Jimenez said today. “Think about a contact lens that could help the eye autofocus on that newspaper and then when you look up it would autofocus in the distance.”
Under the agreement, Google[x] and Alcon will collaborate to develop a "smart lens" that has the potential to address ocular conditions. The smart lens technology involves non-invasive sensors, microchips and other miniaturized electronics which are embedded within contact lenses. Novartis' interest in this technology is currently focused in two areas:    Helping diabetic patients manage their disease by providing a continuous, minimally invasive measurement of the body's glucose levels via a "smart contact lens" which is designed to measure tear fluid in the eye and connects wirelessly with a mobile device; For people living with presbyopia who can no longer read without glasses, the "smart lens" has the potential to provide accommodative vision correction to help restore the eye's natural auto-focus on near objects in the form of an accommodative contact lens or intraocular lens as part of the refractive cataract treatment.
About Novartis
Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines, over-the-counter and animal health products.