Onduo is being led by its newly appointed CEO Joshua Riff, M.D., M.B.A., who has joined the company from Optum, the health services company of UnitedHealth Group, where he was SVP of prevention and wellbeing. Onduo is looking to leverage Verily's experience in miniaturized electronics, analytics, and consumer software development and Sanofi's clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes.

“My experience as a physician and in leading consumer health initiatives has shown me the daily burden of living with diabetes,” says Dr. Riff. “From monitoring food intake to testing glucose levels to actively seeking medical care, the challenges both on the physical and mental well-being of a person living with diabetes are incredibly difficult. We want to develop solutions that allow people living with diabetes to focus on the things they love and enjoy in life by providing tools to make dealing with their diabetes less burdensome.”

Initially, Onduo will focus on type 2 diabetes, specifically on developing solutions that could help people make better decisions about their day-to-day health. Over time, the company plans to expand its focus to include solutions for type 1 diabetes patients and eventually to people at risk of developing diabetes with the goal of helping them better prevent the onset of the disease.

“The integration of multiple interventions, such as data-driven patient support and devices in addition to treatment, can help improve outcomes, which is important from the perspective of patients, healthcare professionals and the overall healthcare system,” says Peter Guenter, EVP, head, global diabetes & cardiovascular business unit, Sanofi. “The new company Sanofi and Verily invested in will adopt a more service-centric approach and support doctors in their efforts to treat their patients more effectively.”

The FDA clearance allows icometrix access to the U.S. market, which it states is an important step and will lead to more evidence-based medicine by bringing automated MRI reports into clinical practice.

“From the outset, icometrix has developed its software in collaboration with leading physicians, neuroradiologists and patient organizations worldwide in order to provide the most clinically helpful MRI measures”, says Dr. Wim Van Hecke, co-founder of icometrix. “In doing so, we have established ourselves as a market leader in Europe, Canada, South America and Australia. The FDA clearance, and the establishment of a subsidiary in the Boston area, will now allow us to also help patients and their clinicians in the United States.”

Industry officials welcomed icometrix to Cambridge and congratulated the firm on its FDA milestone. “We are thrilled to welcome icometrix to Massachusetts and congratulate the company on their 510(k) clearance,” says Robert K. Coughlin, president and CEO of MassBio, the life sciences trade association. “This technology—and personalized medicine broadly—represents the future of healthcare, where doctors can monitor patient's individual disease progression and act with appropriate and sometimes life-saving interventions. We welcome icometrix to our burgeoning personalized medicine and digital health ecosystem.”

Travis McCready, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, adds, “Congratulations to icometrix on establishing their first U.S. office here in Massachusetts, the world's number one ecosystem for life sciences innovation and growth. With FDA clearance in hand for their icobrain technology, this company is poised to make a difference in the quality of care for patients and in the Massachusetts innovation economy. We look forward to being a good partner as icometrix puts down roots and grows here in the Commonwealth.”

CAMBRIDGE, MA—The region's biopharmaceutical and life science sectors got another shot in the arm as a firm launched with a combined $500-million investment from Sanofi and Verily Life Sciences LLC has set up operations in Cambridge.

Onduo is a joint venture created through Sanofi and Verily's diabetes-focused collaboration. Verily is formerly Google Life Sciences. The new company, which is based in Kendall Square, is focused on helping 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.

In another piece of heartening industry news, Belgian health tech company icometrix, which opened a subsidiary in Cambridge earlier this year, secured a significant milestone for its software technology. The firm secured 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its image quantification software—icobrain—that quantifies key features of clinical MRI brain scans that enable clinicians to monitor how their patient's brain changes over time.

Both Onduo and icometrix are located at the Cambridge Innovation Center.

Onduo is being led by its newly appointed CEO Joshua Riff, M.D., M.B.A., who has joined the company from Optum, the health services company of UnitedHealth Group, where he was SVP of prevention and wellbeing. Onduo is looking to leverage Verily's experience in miniaturized electronics, analytics, and consumer software development and Sanofi's clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes.

“My experience as a physician and in leading consumer health initiatives has shown me the daily burden of living with diabetes,” says Dr. Riff. “From monitoring food intake to testing glucose levels to actively seeking medical care, the challenges both on the physical and mental well-being of a person living with diabetes are incredibly difficult. We want to develop solutions that allow people living with diabetes to focus on the things they love and enjoy in life by providing tools to make dealing with their diabetes less burdensome.”

Initially, Onduo will focus on type 2 diabetes, specifically on developing solutions that could help people make better decisions about their day-to-day health. Over time, the company plans to expand its focus to include solutions for type 1 diabetes patients and eventually to people at risk of developing diabetes with the goal of helping them better prevent the onset of the disease.

“The integration of multiple interventions, such as data-driven patient support and devices in addition to treatment, can help improve outcomes, which is important from the perspective of patients, healthcare professionals and the overall healthcare system,” says Peter Guenter, EVP, head, global diabetes & cardiovascular business unit, Sanofi. “The new company Sanofi and Verily invested in will adopt a more service-centric approach and support doctors in their efforts to treat their patients more effectively.”

The FDA clearance allows icometrix access to the U.S. market, which it states is an important step and will lead to more evidence-based medicine by bringing automated MRI reports into clinical practice.

“From the outset, icometrix has developed its software in collaboration with leading physicians, neuroradiologists and patient organizations worldwide in order to provide the most clinically helpful MRI measures”, says Dr. Wim Van Hecke, co-founder of icometrix. “In doing so, we have established ourselves as a market leader in Europe, Canada, South America and Australia. The FDA clearance, and the establishment of a subsidiary in the Boston area, will now allow us to also help patients and their clinicians in the United States.”

Industry officials welcomed icometrix to Cambridge and congratulated the firm on its FDA milestone. “We are thrilled to welcome icometrix to Massachusetts and congratulate the company on their 510(k) clearance,” says Robert K. Coughlin, president and CEO of MassBio, the life sciences trade association. “This technology—and personalized medicine broadly—represents the future of healthcare, where doctors can monitor patient's individual disease progression and act with appropriate and sometimes life-saving interventions. We welcome icometrix to our burgeoning personalized medicine and digital health ecosystem.”

Travis McCready, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, adds, “Congratulations to icometrix on establishing their first U.S. office here in Massachusetts, the world's number one ecosystem for life sciences innovation and growth. With FDA clearance in hand for their icobrain technology, this company is poised to make a difference in the quality of care for patients and in the Massachusetts innovation economy. We look forward to being a good partner as icometrix puts down roots and grows here in the Commonwealth.”