Wrists and risks
Wearables are testing regulatory and legal waters while pharma is creating a new discovery playbook. Last Tuesday, Apple announced a hypertension feature for the Apple Watch that tracks vascular responses over 30 days. FDA clearance for the feature came just two days later. By presenting the feature as a "warning" notification rather than a blood pressure measurement, Apple stays in consumer territory, leaving diagnostics for clinical care—a regulatory tightrope that tripped up Whoop earlier this year. Oura, meanwhile, is tightening its grip on the smart ring category after a patent win against Ultrahuman and RingConn, while expanding its partnership with the Department of Defense (and addressing associated user concerns).
In other news, Eli Lilly just launched TuneLab, an AI‑powered discovery platform that lets select biotech firms access Lilly's preclinical, safety, and drug-disposition models. Biotech partners share training data in return, signaling a first-of-its-kind operating play. One potential upside could be outsourced risk in the earliest phases of R&D, with the option to license or acquire promising assets downstream. Will other pharmacos follow suit, as we saw with LillyDirect—this time with Lilly’s “data‑for‑discovery” playbook?
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