Whenever we speak on Google (GOOG, Financial), we either refer to the tech company for its search engine optimization or for its Android OS which powers most of the mobiles currently selling in the smartphone market. Little do we emphasise upon the research and developmental wing of Google that has been working hard on the life sciences domain. But with the recent news of Google joining hands with Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB, Financial) for production of a molecule to treat deadly diseases like multiple sclerosis, this silent portion of the company is again stealing the limelight. Let’s get into the details of the deal for gaining better insight.

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Teaming up with Biogen

The collaboration with the market leader in multiple sclerosis marks the second major pharmaceutical partnership entered by Google X labs in the life sciences division. According to Andrew Conrad who heads this division, Google X is interested to provide technical and innovative fire power for a “moonshot” in the healthcare segment. In fact, the first attempt to excel in medical science domain has just come in last September when Google gave transperancy on the $1.5 billion deal with AbbVie Inc. (ABBV, Financial) for research on age-related diseases.

He further added, “Our central thesis is to change health care from being reactive to proactive… We’re trying to understand disease at its onset and see if we can intervene early.” By entering this partnership Google intends to explore the biological as well as environmental causes leading to the progression of the multiple sclerosis (MS) disease.

The partnership might pay off well

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system that currently affects over 2.3 million people worldwide and leads to several deaths due to lack of any viable treatment till date. This collaborative effort to understand why this disease progresses differently in different set of patients may finally end in getting to the cure of the fatal disease and saving several lives.

Biogen’s CEO, George Scangos, seemed optimistic on this partnership yet to get finalized and has stated during this press release – “They bring great expertise in data analytics and technology, they’re sophisticated in their approach, they understand biology.”

Since the Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company, Biogen, already has five drugs floated in the market for multiple sclerosis, it already has the innovative technology in place to collect timely data from patients. The latter with its innovative stint has been trying to analyze the efficacy of the “fitness bands” as tools for collecting data. Now, with the combined efforts the companies might make use of sensors as well as “ data analysis” tools for gathering and filtering data from MS affected patients.

Thereby Biogen could accumulate more data that may help in inventing more effective medicines against the disease and deciding which drug could be best suited for which patient type suffering from this disease. Thus the goal of understanding the reasons behind the patients suffering from multiple sclerosis would be achieved and the disease progression would also get monitored accurately and periodically.

Google X medical aspirations riding high

As conveyed to Bloomberg by Google X, it has no ambition of becoming a pharma major in the next few years but there is an innate interest to become a vital partner to companies that are struggling with tough goals and want to achieve the unforeseen through new approaches. Google X lab has been referred to while speaking of self-driven cars from Google, and now its ambitions in the medicinal field are also growing in leaps and bounds. That’s why Google has picked Biogen to be its partner in studying MS patients who are suffering with a disease which does not have any complete cure till date.