AbbVie and Calico have entered an R&D collaboration to discover, develop and market new therapies for age-related diseases, including for neurodegeneration and cancer. Calico is funded by Google and led by former Genentech executives Arthur D. Levinson Ph.D. and Hal V. Barron, M.D.  
 
Calico will establish a new R&D facility in the San Francisco Bay Area with a focus on drug discovery and early drug development and AbbVie will provide scientific and clinical development support, as well as its commercial expertise.
 
AbbVie and Calico will initially contribute as much as $250 million to fund the collaboration with the potential for an additional $500 million each. Calico will be responsible for research and early development for the first five years and to advance collaboration projects through Phase IIa for a 10-year period. AbbVie will support Calico in its early R&D efforts and, following Phase IIa studies, will have the option to manage late-stage development and commercial activities. Both parties will share costs and profits equally.
 
“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,” said Richard A. Gonzalez, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, AbbVie. “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.”
 
“Our relationship with AbbVie is a pivotal event for Calico, whose mission is to develop life-enhancing therapies for people with age-related diseases.  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,” said Dr. Levinson, chief executive officer and founder of Calico.
 
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the many outstanding scientists at AbbVie to ensure that the important science at Calico is advanced quickly to benefit patients,” said Dr. Barron, president of R&D at Calico.