Alphabet and phama company Sanofi are teaming up to work on new diabetes treatments

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi SA and Alphabet-owned Verily Life Sciences LLC are investing $500 million in a joint venture that will address the global diabetes epidemic. The new company, called Onduo, will be led by Joshua Riff, previously an executive at UnitedHealth.

Onduo will initially focus on Type II diabetes, which affects 90 percent of those with the disease. This form of the disease develops when the body cannot properly use the insulin produced by the pancreas. It is usually treated with a combination of dietary change, careful monitoring of blood sugar levels, and insulin injections to correct the blood sugar levels.

Diabetes is one of the most lucrative avenues of health research because there’s a fortune to be made...