I've been more than a little intrigued recently about a new life science venture that is garnering increased attention, and the main reason for that intrigue is that this new life science venture comes with a globally-recognized brand tagged to it - none other than Google! Yes, it seems that the search engine/search engine marketing and Internet technology giant now intends to "solve death" (a rather ambitious challenge!) via their first foray into one key aspect of daily life for so many - human disease.
Around this time last year, Google announced the nucleation of Calico, a California-based biotech company that would focus on health and well-being, and putting a priority on age-dependent diseases moving forward. Given how we have "solved death" (a better label might be cheated death) in terms of heart disease and certain cancers (relative to decades ago), we are all living longer, and unquestionably the emergence of what are referred to as "age-dependent diseases" is indicative of that medical success.
Our grandparents maybe never experienced true age-dependent diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease etc. primarily because they died too young - but today's grandparents have benefited enormously from medical advances effected in their lifetime and as the population of humans in their 70s, 80s and 90s has increased exponentially, so have diseases that inevitably arise during those precious extra years of life.
Thus the choice of age-dependent diseases and improved well-being for an aging population is not exactly shocking for any contemporary new biopharma enterprise, but perhaps the fact that it is Google who are backing Calico is shocking, and raises some eyebrows. There is naturally a great deal of skepticism about the venture, especially given that it didn't even come with a website attached to it, and for a Google that just seems heretical! People have been asking whether it's just the next trendy thing that CEO Larry Page wants to have in his portfolio, or maybe he's actually trying to solve the issue of his own death, in advance!
The cynicism has been put to rest a little by the credentials of the person who is at the helm - none other than Art Levinson, former CEO and Chairman of Genentech, arguably the most successful biotech in the world, and he is also at the helm of Apple's board - so this is a big name and is someone associated with both far-reaching ambition and the talent to make it actually happen. But is it possible to build a second Genentech, in 2014? That is the question, especially if the goal is to "solve death"!
Subsequently to Levinson, there have been a few other more scientifically commonplace names mentioned, some of whom are involved in lifespan research in C. elegans - tiny nematodes that live in soil. As fascinating as some of the work is, it is a very long way away from humans and their diseases, and translation of nematode research into clinically relevant targets/therapeutics is far from the type of technology challenges that have been heretofore successfully addressed by Google.
Even if they are an easy target in this regard, it is worth pointing out that Google knows nothing about biology. They know a truckload about the personal online habits and preferences of countless hundreds of millions of computer-using humanoids (often without their knowledge), but they know nothing about what truly keeps that extremely sophisticated biology alive and kicking, and functioning beautifully like that brand new shiny Google drone - and even that remains to be seen!
Of course, the reverse may also be (and is) the case. Would Google be impressed by a bunch of biologists announcing that they were going to solve wordless communication technology, via just the power of thought? That would be an enormous technological challenge, and certainly one that also involves some biology - but the task would be ultimately primarily technological, for now. Just as "solving death" remains indisputably a biological challenge, but one which naturally includes some technological excellence.
But let's not forget that incredible advances in technology-applied-to-science/medicine, such as the sequencing of the human genome, have not fulfilled their promise in terms of their impact on "solving death", even if the reason is that the technology provided data that we as scientists can not yet interpret fully due to there being an ongoing and increased need for understanding of the biology underlying that data. Although a biologist could well have an idea for an app that is better than a typical tech geek, and some tech geeks may well be able to look at human disease with fresh eyes, it's still likely to be the tech geek who solves the communication issue and the biologist who finds a key piece in the puzzle of disease biology.
To cut a long story short then, it seems to me that the most useful contribution of Google to Calico would be their cash, their brand, and the only way to make it competitive will be stocking it up with top notch scientists, and making it look as much as possible like a typical biotech company, and as little as possible like the brainchild of Google's Larry Page. The Google X team under him are indeed working on projects that fall outside of the traditional Google bread and butter, but none quite as far off as founding something remotely like a Genentech! It is worth noting in that regard that Art Levinson is also a founding investor, and he may well have pitched something to Google that persuaded them to go in this direction.
Notwithstanding the apparent lack of movement over the past year, and the mounting sarcasm regarding how virtual-versus-real this venture is, it was announced just this week that Calico was going into business with a big name in the industry - AbbVie! Apparently both Google (Calico) and AbbVie are to invest a whopping $250M each into this disease-solving (sounds much more realistic than "death-solving") partnership, with each entity sharing in any proceeds. Given AbbVie's recent acquisition of Shire for north of $50B, it is clear that they can afford this play with Calico, and can readily invest the remaining cash outlined in the deal which could top out at $750M each for AbbVie and Calico.
One can only hope that in the case of Google, someone took the time to explain to them that given the particularities of drug discovery and development (as opposed to releasing a new smartphone), it is not clear that Larry Page will still be the CEO by the time Calico would have a therapeutic for "solving death" on the market. Unless Larry Page knows something that we don't and he's intending to have the same number of lives as that cute calico cat pictured above! ;)
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