Health care firm AbbVie and Google research unit Calico are playing to each other's strengths on a research and development effort focused on age-related diseases, with each pouring $250 million into the venture.
The venture will see Calico gaining a new research facility somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area, while AbbVie will use the Calico center to further the development of new discoveries.
Art Levinson, founder of Calico, now serves as CEO for the year-old life sciences firm, which operates independently of Google. Hal V. Barron, former executive vice president of Genentic, joined Levison in the move to Calico.
For Levison and Calico, the partnership with AbbVie offers a company-defining venture.
"Our relationship with AbbVie is a pivotal event for Calico, whose mission is to develop life-enhancing therapies for people with age-related diseases," says Levinson. "It will greatly accelerate our efforts to understand the science of aging, advance our clinical work, and help bring important new therapies to patients everywhere."
Both partners are taking even shares of profits and expenses in the 10-year venture.
Calico will oversee research and development during the first five years. During the second half of the partnership, AbbVie will have the option to take up management of projects and commercialize elements that are ready for market.
As the more-established company in the venture, AbbVie gains a new research wing, of sorts, and a new avenue to test drive new therapies, according to Richard A. Gonzalez, CEO and board chairman at AbbVie.
"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to exploring new areas of medicine and innovative approaches to drug discovery and development that augments our already robust pipeline," says Gonzalez. "We are pleased to be working with such outstanding scientists as Art Levinson, Hal Barron and their team. The potential to help improve patients' lives with new therapies is enormous."
Distributor of the world's top selling medicine, biopharmaceutical company AbbVie was said to gross approximately $13 billion annually from the sale of Humira. The company developed ABT-450 that was proven to have a roughly 96 percent rate of success in curing hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver, after the experimental drug was applied over the course of 12 weeks.
