Alphabet’s life science subsidiary Verily is working to detach itself from Google’s technology and possibly move outside its parent company, according to reporting by Insider. 

The plan, internally called Flywheel, launched early this year to remove Verily’s products from Google’s computing infrastructure, as in moving the business unit from Google’s internal cloud service to a public version available to other businesses.

Insider’s report said Verily wants to finish an early version of its new tech infrastructure by early 2022 at the latest.

"Verily is continually building our talent and infrastructure," a company spokesperson told Insider. "We have now reached the next phase of our products. This necessitates additional investment in new platform capabilities to support our operations in the healthcare sector, to meet our unique regulatory needs and serve our customers. We plan to take full advantage of the public cloud, including Google and our other partners."

WHY IT MATTERS

Verily could be moving towards an initial public offering. According to current and former employees interviewed by Insider, CEO Andy Conrad has talked about a push towards an IPO in the past, but the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed those plans.

THE LARGER TREND

Verily has had a busy year so far. In late 2020, it raised $700 million to expand its commercial offerings, and in August acquired clinical trial management system SignalPath in its first major acquisition. The SignalPath purchase will help Verily build out its own clinical trial platform, Baseline.

Also last month, Verily announced it was partnering with Colgate-Palmolive to conduct oral health research to include in the unit’s Baseline Health Study, and it teamed up with the Mayo Clinic to develop a clinical decision support tool.

In August, Insider reported that Verily’s sister company Google was dismantling its health division and moving its initiatives to more general divisions in the company. The news came just after former vice president Dr. David Feinberg took on the CEO role at EHR company Cerner.