— Could It Have Anything to Do With Parent Company Alphabet’s Deep Pharma Ties?

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, admitted to Congress that the Biden administration pressured YouTube, owned by Google, to remove videos that didn’t even violate its content policies. Alphabet — which has deep ties to pharma — called the practice “unacceptable and wrong.” But it’s still happening.

by Jeremy R. Hammond

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website

November 19, 2025

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Big Tech companies colluded with the government to silence dissent and criticisms of the lockdowns and a coercive mass vaccination campaign by censoring truthful information that did not align with the political agenda.

The Biden administration’s role in the censorship regime was the subject of a May 2024 congressional report titled “The Censorship-Industrial Complex.”

Three months after that report was released, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to Congress that Facebook had censored factual information under pressure from the White House.

In September, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, responded to a congressional subpoena with a letter similarly disclosing how the Biden administration had pressured YouTube, owned by Google, to remove videos that didn’t even violate its content policies.

Alphabet called the practice “unacceptable and wrong” while insisting that it withstood the pressure and enforced only its own policies against “misinformation.”

That defense, however, sidesteps the fact that those content guidelines were created in collusion with the same “health authorities” advancing the authoritarian governance — like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO).

The result was that true information was censored while government-sanctioned disinformation was allowed to proliferate unchallenged.

As a United Nations official admitted at a September 2022 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, Google was helping government authorities to “own the science” in its internet search results.

In its letter to Congress, Alphabet noted that YouTube’s content policies had since evolved. Tacitly admitting how creators had been silenced for telling the truth, Alphabet promised to restore YouTube channels suspended for content no longer deemed misinformative.

So, Alphabet acknowledged the censorship but tried to absolve itself by blaming the White House and public health authorities.

The truth is that Google’s censorship of health-related content, including inconvenient facts about vaccines, predated COVID-19 and continues to this day. Could that be because Alphabet has its own deep financial ties to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries?

Alphabet’s ties to Big Pharma exist through numerous of its subsidiaries, including Calico, DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Verily Life Sciences. In this article, we will focus on the latter of Google’s sister companies.

Google Ventures invests heavily in pharma and biotech

In 2009, Google launched Google Ventures (now known formally as GV), a venture capital firm that immediately began investing in pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

One example of Google’s forays into the medical industry was its investment in Flatiron Health, a startup that aimed to build a software platform to improve oncology care by using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze patient data.

Flatiron’s founders had previously owned Invite Media, a display advertisement company that Google acquired in 2010. They had no healthcare background but were guided by Krishna Yeshwant, a physician and managing partner at Google Ventures.

In 2013, they raised $8 million for Flatiron, with GV as lead investor, followed by another $130 million the following year, also led by GV. As part of the latter agreement, Flatiron’s board of directors would include Andrew Conrad, the director of tech research and development at Google X, a research and development division of the tech giant.

In 2016, Flatiron raised a third round of funding — another $175 million — led by the Swiss multinational corporation Roche Pharmaceuticals.

Two years later, Roche acquired Flatiron from its founders for $1.9 billion.

Other examples of GV’s early investments in biotech and life sciences companies included a stake in DNAnexus, a DNA sequencing company; SynapDx, which provided lab testing services to help physicians detect autism earlier; and 23andMe, a company best known for its at-home DNA test kits, but which also conducts biomedical research with aggregated customer data.

Google’s ‘secret lab’ partners with pharma to collect genetic data

In 2010, Google launched what is commonly called its “secret lab,” a division named Google X (now known as X, The Moonshot Factory). Within Google X, a “Life Sciences” team was formed to advance medical technologies.

Among that team’s “moonshot” projects was a “smart lens” technology to embed microchips and other electronics into contact lenses. The lens could measure glucose levels in the eye fluid and be wirelessly monitored with a mobile phone app.

In 2014, Google X licensed its smart lens technology to the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis.

Previously a major vaccine developer, Novartis in 2015 sold its flu vaccine business to CSL (now CSL Seqirus) and its remaining vaccine assets to GSK.

After the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine received “emergency use authorization” (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2020, Novartis provided manufacturing assistance.

Also in 2014, Google X launched the “Baseline Study” to collect genetic and molecular data from thousands of volunteers. The data would be analyzed to determine biomarkers of disease with the financial goal of aiding drug development.

Critics perceived a conflict of interest related to Google’s privacy policy and business model of harvesting user data to sell for profit.

As The Wall Street Journal remarked, “the idea that Google would know the structure of thousands of people’s bodies — down to the molecules inside their cells” — raised significant privacy concerns.

The Google Life Sciences team also developed surgical robots. The project came to fruition in March 2015, when Google partnered with the medical device company Ethicon — a division of the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

In February 2017, Google expanded its partnership with J&J by forming a new joint venture, Verb Surgical. After what it called “a successful strategic collaboration,” J&J  bought Google’s shares, making Verb Surgical a wholly owned subsidiary of J&J.

Google Life Sciences aims to ‘defeat Mother Nature’

In August 2015, Google announced a corporate restructuring and announced a new holding company, Alphabet, under which Google became a wholly owned subsidiary.

The first new company created under Alphabet, a split-off from Google X, was called Google Life Sciences.

As Business Insider remarked, the restructuring indicated that “Google is doubling down on biotech.” Investor’s Business Daily reported: “Google Regroups, Thunders Into Health Tech.”

A few months after the corporate restructuring, Google Life Sciences was dissociated from the Google brand when it was renamed Verily Life Sciences.

Verily’s co-founder and CEO was Conrad — who had directed tech research and development while it was still the “life sciences” division at Google X. Verily carried on Google’s efforts to engineer new ways of harvesting human biometric data to be innovatively repackaged and sold to biopharmaceutical companies.

Regarding the name change to a synonym of “truly,” Conrad explained, “Only through the truth are we going to defeat Mother Nature.”

Verily teams up with GSK to develop ‘bioelectronic medicines’

GlaxoSmithKline, now formally known as GSK, is among the manufacturers of vaccines licensed for use in the U.S. by the FDA, with products including the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine Infanrix and the bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Cervarix.

In August 2016, Verily and GSK announced a new joint venture, Galvani Bioelectronics, to develop “bioelectronic medicines” — implantable devices that modulate the nervous system’s electrical signals.

Joining Galvani’s board of directors was GSK’s chairman of Global Vaccines, Moncef Slaoui, who later also became a board member at Moderna, which developed its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In May 2020, Slaoui left Moderna to oversee “Operation Warp Speed,” the initiative under the first Trump administration to provide a massive taxpayer subsidy to biopharmaceutical companies for the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines.

Verily launches joint venture with ‘leader in vaccines’

In September 2016, Verily launched a joint venture with the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi, a self-described “leader in vaccines for over 100 years.”

The purpose of the new company, Onduo, was to develop devices, analytics software and drugs for the management of diabetes, with a focus on virtual care such as online lifestyle coaching, phone or video consultations with physicians, and remote prescribing.

Onduo tracks patients’ health data through wearable devices connected to a mobile app. For instance, the app connects with a continuous glucose monitor for monitoring blood sugar levels.

In late 2019, Sanofi ended its operational role in Onduo but continued to invest in the company. Onduo has evidently since become a wholly owned Verily subsidiary, with “Verily Onduo” now branded on its website as a “virtual care management solution” for diabetes and hypertension patients.

In 2021, Google acquired the wearable data-collecting device manufacturer Fitbit. Verily has since incorporated a Fitbit wristband tracker and subscription-based fitness trainer program into Onduo.

And while Sanofi backed out of its joint venture with Verily, it launched a new partnership with Google in June 2019, described as “a new virtual Innovation Lab.”

The goal was to use Google’s analytics capabilities and the Google Cloud Platform to mine insights from patient data for drug development.

As Fierce Pharma reported, Sanofi also hoped to use Google’s AI technology “to help forecast sales and optimize marketing and supply chain activities.”

Google’s ‘Verily Me’ App prompts users: ‘When was my last flu vaccination?’

Also operating under the Verily brand name was the Baseline Study, the Google X initiative to harvest health data from a large volunteer population to advance drug development.

In April 2016, Verily CEO Andrew Conrad invited criticism for awarding a Baseline Study research contract to the California Health & Longevity Institute, a luxury clinic that he largely owned.

STAT explained how Verily could profit from the project “by selling the treasure trove of health data it plans to collect.” The Alphabet subsidiary was “already in talks with pharmaceutical giants about selling access to that data.”

A year later, the data-mining operation was rebooted as “Project Baseline,” which Verily announced would commence with an inaugural study to collect a broad range of health data from 10,000 participants over the course of at least four years.

The project’s partners included Stanford Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine, which hosted volunteer recruitment sites. The American Heart Association (AHA) was another Project Baseline partner. AHA launched a campaign to persuade women across the U.S. to volunteer as research subjects.

Google provided analytics capabilities and the Google Cloud Platform, where the de-identified data would be made available to scientists to aid in drug development.

As MIT Technology reported, “Google knows all about your habits and interests online. Now the search company’s health spinout, Verily, is asking 10,000 Americans for intimate knowledge of their bodies.”

In May 2019, Verily announced a strategic alliance with the pharmaceutical companies Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi to use Project Baseline for clinical research programs. The aim was to speed their new products through the FDA’s drug approval process.

Within just the past few months, Google once again rebooted Project Baseline, this time branding it as “Verily Me” with an accompanying “Verily Lifelong Health Study.” Its former website, projectbaseline.com, now redirects to verilyme.com, where visitors can download a free mobile app to get personalized recommendations for treatment options to be discussed with the user’s healthcare provider.

The app also has a meal logging feature that provides feedback and suggestions, plus an AI chatbot, “Violet,” trained to answer questions about health records, including, “When was my last flu vaccination?”

The app requires users’ consent for their health data and medical records to be collected by Verily and shared with its third-party partners. Users are also encouraged to participate in the Verily Lifelong Health Study to help “bring new treatments and therapies” to market.

Signup is easy, the website boasts, and users can leave the study at any time. However, users’ data, the FAQ page clarifies, stays with Verily.

How Alphabet supported the lockdowns

Google’s manipulation of search algorithms and YouTube’s silencing of dissent were not the only means by which Alphabet supported the lockdown endgame of coerced mass vaccination.

Early on, lockdown proponents advocated the development of a “vaccine passport” system, where proof of vaccination would be required for people to travel, work or attend college.

The WEF, for example, supported the development of a “digital health pass” mobile app, “CommonPass,” to serve as proof of COVID-19 vaccination, an anticipated requirement for airline travel.

Microsoft teamed up with other tech firms and healthcare organizations for the “Vaccine Credential Initiative.” IBM joined with the WHO in a similar effort. The Biden administration worked with private companies toward the goal of a national vaccine passport system.

As The Washington Post explained in April 2021, the “vaccine passports” would come in the form of mobile apps carrying “pieces of your health information — most critically your coronavirus vaccination status.” The Post framed it as unfortunate that implementing the system was “a technical headache.”

STAT reported resistance to the idea among business owners fearing customer backlash, and fears among health experts that effectively mandating the shots would erode public trust in the vaccines.

To support the authoritarian agenda, Google teamed up with Apple to build “contact tracing” software into smartphones to track users’ self-reported infection status and proximity to other opted-in users’ Bluetooth-enabled devices. Users were alerted if they came into close contact with someone infected.

The data were also provided to “public health authorities.”

Having been asked by government agencies in early March 2020 to contribute to the pandemic response, Verily also supported the vaccine passport agenda.

Until very recently, Verily’s “About” page boasted its “Healthy at Work Program,” which was centered around the development of a mobile phone app giving employers access to de-identified aggregate data for workers’ daily symptom screening and PCR testing.

The app was similarly used by universities for monitoring students.

After the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines under FDA EUA, the app was upgraded to also track workers’ and students’ vaccination status.

Verily was subsequently awarded a $38 million contract to support the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System, which monitors sewage for viruses to predict infectious disease outbreaks.

Verily also joins a long list of pharmaceutical and biotech companies partnered with the NIH and FDA to speed the development and licensure of drugs and therapies — the so-called “Accelerating Medicines Partnership,” or AMP.

Other partners in the taxpayer subsidization scheme include vaccine manufacturers GSK, Merck, Pfizer and Sanofi.

 

Please Donate Today

 

Google still ‘owns’ the science

When Alphabet replied to Congress to admit how truthful information was censored during the COVID-19 pandemic, it placed blame squarely on the White House and characterized the problem as being isolated to Joe Biden’s term as president.

That was a convenient narrative to sell the public and the Republican-controlled Congress during the current second term of the executor of “Operation Warp Speed,” President Donald Trump.

The reality is that Google’s censorship predated the pandemic and persists today.

With Google’s assistance, the proponents of global authoritarianism still “own the science.”

The YouTube accounts of many creators banned for telling the truth, including Children’s Health Defense, remain suspended.

Pressure from the Biden administration is neither sufficient nor necessary to explain Google’s censorship. It is adequately explained by Alphabet’s data-mining operations and technical innovations in lucrative service to the biopharmaceutical industry and government agencies.

We’ve focused on Verily here, but Alphabet’s tentacles go even deeper, including through subsidiaries Calico, Isomorphic Labs and DeepMind.

To stay updated with further coverage from The Defender about the censorship regime and surveillance state, and to get a free e-book on how informed consent advocates are targeted and silenced, sign up here.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children’s Health Defense.

 

Jeremy R. Hammond

Jeremy R. Hammond is an independent researcher and journalist focused on exposing deceitful mainstream propaganda serving to manufacture consent for harmful government policies.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.