Sanofi, a global healthcare leader, and the life sciences team at Google have announced collaboration to improve care and outcomes for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The collaboration will pair Sanofi's leadership in diabetes treatments and devices with Google's expertise in analytics, miniaturised electronics and low power chip design. The companies will explore how to improve diabetes care by developing new tools that bring together many of the previously siloed pieces of diabetes management and enable new kinds of interventions. This includes health indicators such as blood glucose and haemoglobin A1c levels, patient-reported information, medication regimens and sensor devices.

Sanofi and the life sciences team at Google will combine their respective expertise in science and technology to work on better ways to collect, analyse and understand multiple sources of information impacting diabetes. The hope is that it will be easier for patients to successfully manage their diabetes, which would reduce the risk of complications, improve outcomes and ultimately lower costs.

"As a global leader in diabetes care, we have both an obligation and a commitment to provide integrated solutions for people living with diabetes," said Olivier Brandicourt, MD, chief executive officer, Sanofi.

"This initiative combines Sanofi's strength and knowledge in diabetes with Google's leadership in technology and analytics to create a first-of-its-kind initiative with the potential to transform diabetes care."

"With new technologies emerging to provide a more continuous and real-time view of a patient's health, we can see the promise for more proactive and effective ways to control diabetes," said Andy Conrad, CEO of the life sciences team at Google.

"Together with Sanofi, we believe diabetes management can be simpler and more convenient, which may help patients achieve an improved quality of life."

"We have built expertise in providing holistic, integrated solutions that combine medicines, devices, technologies and services," said Pascale Witz, executive vice president, Sanofi, who will lead the global diabetes and cardiovascular care business unit in the company's new organisational structure. "The life sciences team at Google can help us improve the patient experience, outcomes and manage healthcare costs more effectively."

"We are experiencing a worldwide pandemic of diabetes, and it's very encouraging to see healthcare and technology innovators step up to the challenge of providing cutting edge tools and care advancing technologies to help people with diabetes manage their disease, 24/7," said John L. Brooks, III, president and CEO of Joslin Diabetes Center, which is a partner to the collaboration.

"Technology, sensors, analytics, and digital solutions will revolutionise how blood sugars are managed, which will deliver improved quality of life, lowering the risk of complications and reducing the costs and barriers associated with diabetes care. Ultimately, I truly hope we're able to turn the Joslin Diabetes Center into a museum."

Diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that acts like a key to let glucose from the food we eat pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy. All carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose in the blood. Insulin helps glucose get into the cells.

Not being able to produce insulin or use it effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood (known as hyperglycemia). Over the long-term high glucose levels are associated with damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues.

The latest edition IDF Diabetes Atlas, published on World Diabetes Day, estimates that people living with diabetes will surge from 382 million to 592 million people by 2035.