谷歌諾華攜手研發智能隱形眼鏡技術 可矯正老花眼
Pharmaceuticals have entered the digital age, and they aren’t looking back.
製藥公司已邁入數字化時代，他們正勇往直前。Novartis said Tuesday it is teaming up with Google[x] GOOG -1.53% , the search company’s research arm, to launch smart lens technology.
上週二，諾華公司（Novartis）稱，正與搜索巨頭谷歌（Google）的研究團隊合作，準備推出智能隱形眼鏡技術。The move is only the start of a healthcare revolution. There’s Google glasses in operating rooms, a prescription-only smart phone app and, in the not-so-far future, contact lenses that can read blood-sugar levels — a revolution for diabetics, who today must either prick their own fingers or wear a subcutaneous monitoring device.
這只是一場醫療革命的開端。還有手術室專用的谷歌眼鏡，處方級智能手機應用，以及不遠的將來能讀取血糖水平的隱形眼鏡——對糖尿病患者來說這是真正的革命性產品，他們現在要麼只能扎手指取血樣，要麼只能佩戴皮下監測設備。
Fortune talked with Jeff George, the global head of Alcon — the Novartis subsidiary that is working hand-in-hand with Google innovators to bring smart lenses to market — about the intersection of healthcare and technology, and what could lie ahead for the pharmaceutical industry.
作爲諾華的分公司，眼科公司愛爾康（Alcon）正與谷歌創新團隊攜手，準備將智能隱形眼鏡推向市場。日前，《財富》（Fortune）雜誌專訪了愛爾康全球總裁傑夫o喬治，講述醫藥行業與科技的交融，以及製藥業的前景。George came on board to lead the contact-maker on May 1, and already in his two and a half months on the job he’s helped to land the Google[x] partnership and is planning out how Alcon can leverage this miniature technology to transform everyday health. (Think: no more reading glasses!)
今年5月1日，喬治升任愛爾康總裁，在他的協助下，兩個半月前公司與谷歌X實驗室達成合作。目前愛爾康公司正在籌劃如何藉助這一微型技術改善普通人的健康水平。（試想，再也不用戴老花鏡了是什麼情景！）How did the partnership between Google[x] and Alcon come about?
《財富》：谷歌X實驗室與愛爾康公司是如何達成合作的？Joe [Jimenez, Novartis CEO] had had conversations back at the beginning of the year just prior to Google announcing that they were moving forward with their gluco-sensing smart lens, and we had an opportunity prior to my joining to show them our facilities. They were pretty impressed with the capabilities that we had.
傑夫o喬治：今年年初，喬（即諾華公司首席執行官吉梅內斯）就與對方開始會談，此後不久谷歌便宣佈他們正在開發可以測量血糖水平的智能隱形眼鏡。在我加盟之前，公司就向他們展示了愛爾康的設備，谷歌對我們所擁有的能力深表歎服。One of the things I’m trying to do at Alcon just having taken over May 1 is really stimulate and galvanize the culture of innovation. We’re really looking for the best ideas whether they are internal or external. There’s been a tremendous amount of innovation in Alcon that’s enabled us to grow from a $350 million company in 1984 to $10.5 billion last year. And at the same time I wanted to make sure we’re exposing our people to inspiration outside of our industry.
自5月1日上任以來，我在愛爾康的主要任務之一就是努力營造並激發公司的創新文化。我們全力尋找各種最佳創意，無論它們是來自公司內部還是外部。愛爾康長期以來所做的大量創新使我們從一家1984年銷售額僅爲3.5億美元的公司成長爲去年銷售額高達105億美元的公司。而與此同時，我要確保始終讓員工接受來自行業外的各種啓發。I see an increasing convergence between technology and healthcare and the speed at which [Google] is prototyping products really blew me away, so this is something that really resonated with my team. It’s not a traditional way of looking at healthcare, even within medical devices, to really partner with a top technology company.
我發現，科技與醫療保健正日益融合，而（谷歌公司）打造創新原型產品的速度也真讓我驚歎不已，這正是能與我的團隊產生強烈共鳴的東西。與頂尖科技公司合作，讓我們用全新的眼光看待醫療設備業，甚至整個醫療保健業。What aspect of the “smart lens” technology excites you most?
“智能隱形眼鏡”技術的哪方面最讓你興奮？Presbyopia. You have close to 2 billion people who have difficulty reading, whether it’s an iPad or a book, and really want freedom from readers and from eyeglasses. That’s really something that’s exciting for us.
矯正老花眼。現在全球有近20億人因老花眼而閱讀困難，無論是iPad還是紙質書都是如此，他們非常希望能自由閱讀，擺脫老花鏡。這正是讓我們興奮的地方。Effectively the way the technology works is that you have photo diodes which are sensors that are embedded into the contact lens that interact with the amount of light that is coming into the eye and interact with your down-gaze or your up-gaze, which controls how much light is coming in based on where your eyelid is. The sensor technology is able then to wirelessly send a signal to a liquid crystal, which is embedded between two layers of a contact lens. Then that liquid crystal would adjust for either looking out in distance or looking in near field. That technology is something that’s really really quite interesting to us.
這一技術的原理是，在隱形眼鏡上植入作爲傳感器的光敏二極管，它們與進入眼睛的光量及視線的上下移動相互作用，根據眼瞼開合的角度控制進光量。隨後傳感器可以將信號無線傳輸給內嵌於兩層隱形眼鏡之間的液晶。然後這些液晶會自動調節以供遠眺或近看。我們對這種技術非常非常感興趣。Our hope is that as the leaders in surgical equipment and devices for cataracts and refractive surgery globally, we could ultimately develop this also for intra-ocular lenses, which is a big business for us. Our cataract business is over $3 billion in size.
我們希望，作爲全球白內障和屈光手術外科設備的領導者，最終將能夠把這一技術用於人工晶體，這對我們來說是樁大生意。目前我們的白內障業務規模是30多億美元。So, the potential for this could go much further?
這麼說來，這一技術有望獲得長足發展？It does. We licensed the smart lens technology on an exclusive basis for all ocular uses. We’re very focused on bringing to market the gluco-sensing smart lens for diabetics and auto-focus technology for presbyopics–like my parents and in a few years myself. But at the same time, there are other ocular indications.
確實如此。我們爲所有的視覺應用申請了智能隱形眼鏡的獨家專利。目前我們正致力於將糖尿病患者所需的可監測血糖的智能隱形眼鏡和老花眼人羣——比如我父母和幾年後的我本人——所需的可自動調焦技術推向市場。不過與此同時，這些技術還有望用於其他眼科疾病。There’s about 60 million people around the world who have glaucoma, and this sensing smart-lens technology could continuously monitor intra-operative eye pressure, which is what is controlled by medicines that treat glaucoma like prostaglandins. Before its patent expired, Xalatan [a prostaglandin] was a product worth a couple of billon dollars to Pfizer.
目前全世界青光眼患者高達6000萬人，這種感應式智能隱形眼鏡技術可以持續監測術中眼壓，而這是由前列腺素這類治療青光眼的藥物來控制的。在其專利到期前，適利達（一種前列腺素藥名）是輝瑞公司（Pfizer）一款價值高達數十億美元的拳頭產品。Are there other areas where you could see this technology transforming healthcare?
在你看來，這一技術還會在哪些領域深刻改變醫療保健業？I think it’s important that the partnership is starting with the eye, which is really the natural window into the body’s overall health. But, moving beyond the eye, Novartis is clearly a leader globally in a number of therapeutic areas.
我認爲，這一合作關係從眼部開始至關重要，因爲眼睛確實是人體整體健康狀況的窗口。不過，除了眼科，諾華在衆多臨牀治療領域都是全球領導者。One of those that we’re a leader in is oncology, or the treatment for cancer, and there could be other opportunities in the future in that space. There could be other opportunities in heart failure. We’ve got a pretty incredible pipeline that’s looking to address people with chronic heart failure and a number of conditions right now where there’s a pretty high medical need.
其中之一就是腫瘤學，或者說癌症治療，今後這一領域可能也會有其他機會。在心力衰竭領域也會有各種機會。我們已獲得了一條極佳渠道有望治療患有慢性心力衰竭的病人，還具備了開拓目前就醫需求強烈的領域的多種條件。What will be the biggest challenge incorporating the technology into Alcon’s own product development?
將這一技術與愛爾康自己的產品開發整合起來的最大挑戰是什麼？From the technical challenge perspective, you know, this isn’t easy. You’re talking about layering in sensors and miniature wireless chips and microchips. Then, how do you ensure on the gluco-sensing smart lens that there’s a correlation between the sugar glucose and the blood glucose, plus a number of other things that we need to prove clinically.
要知道，從技術挑戰這一角度看，事情並不容易。我們剛纔談到了嵌入傳感器、微型無線芯片和微芯片。而如何才能確保在血糖監測智能隱形眼鏡上使葡萄糖和血糖之間具有相關性呢，還有其他需要在臨牀上加以驗證的很多東西。So, I think there are both technical challenges, which is really where Google excels, and there’s also clinical challenges, which is really where Novartis and Alcon excel.
所以，我認爲既有谷歌擅長解決的技術難題，也有諾華和愛爾康擅長應對的臨牀難題。Do you see more partnerships like this happening in the future between technology and pharmaceutical companies?
你認爲科技公司和製藥公司今後會開展更多此類合作嗎？I do see an increasing convergence in technology and healthcare, and I think technology companies are looking for new sources of growth but also new ways in which they can really impact the world.
我確實發現科技和醫療保健業有日益融合的趨勢。而我認爲，科技公司不僅要找到新的增長點，也需要找到能真正影響世界的全新方式。As Sergey [Brin] said in his quote yesterday, this has the potential to help millions of people around the world. There’s a real mission component to this for us on the Novartis and the Alcon side, and I think that’s true for Google as well, though I wouldn’t want to speak for them.
正如謝爾蓋o布林昨天所說，這種合作有望幫助全世界成千上萬的患者。對諾華和愛爾康來說，這種合作確實充滿了使命感，我儘管不想爲谷歌代言，但我想對他們來說事實也是如此。[Google] recognizes that they are the natural owners for certain capabilities and certain competencies, but really it’s going to be best for them to partner and to find a symbiotic relationship that they can develop. There was a very competitive process that they ran. They had a number of key selection criteria, and ultimately the match ended up being right between Google and Novartis.
（谷歌）很清楚，他們在某些方面天生就能力極強，富有競爭優勢，但如果能找到合適的合作伙伴，建立一種共生關係，他們就能發展得更好。他們採用了競爭擇優的選拔流程，利用一系列關鍵選擇標準，最終發現谷歌和諾華是一對完美拍檔。How do you see the intersection of tech and pharma transforming the healthcare industry in the future?
你認爲科技和製藥業的這種密切融合今後會如何深刻改變醫療保健行業？Frankly, in many top healthcare companies there’s a huge technological component. If you talk to Mark Fishman, who is the president of our Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, big data and the data revolution that’s happening are instrumental to a lot of our research activities within Novartis.
實際上，很多一流醫療保健企業都擁有大量專有技術。如果您和諾華生物醫藥研究所（Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research）所長馬克o費希曼聊聊就會發現，目前流行的大數據和數據革命對諾華的大量研究來說已經起到了舉足輕重的作用。One of the elements is how people are able to leverage and harness big data. A second element is what they can do with it then and how that enables personalization in medicine, whether it be in oncology or in other indications.
這其中的要點之一就是人們如何才能充分利用並駕馭大數據。其二就是，無論是在癌症治療還是其他疾病治療領域，他們能利用大數據做什麼，以及大數據如何纔能有助於實現個性化治療。There’s also this consumer piece of it, which is enabling consumers to take more control of their own healthcare. In the past you used to have to go to a doctor to do a lot of the testing that today can be done wirelessly and remotely.
這其中還有消費者的因素，即大數據能讓消費者更好地控制自己的健康狀況。過去人們必須去醫生那兒做大量檢查，而今天這些檢查都可以遠程無線進行。I think we’ll see more medical device companies and pharma companies that are interested in moving into the data realm because it gives them greater insight from a patient perspective into developing better medicines.
我想，今後會有更多醫療設備企業和製藥企業深入挖掘大數據，因爲這能讓他們從病人的視角獲得更深入的認識，開發出更好的藥物。
