AbbVie and Calico have extended their collaboration to discover, develop and market new therapies for patients with age-related diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer. 
 
Calico is the Alphabet-backed life sciences company that is led by former Genentech chairman and chief executive officer Arthur D. Levinson, Ph.D.  Calico has a research and development facility in the San Francisco Bay Area and more than 150 employees.  
 
The collaboration has been extended for an additional three years. Calico will be responsible for research and early development until 2022 and will advance collaboration projects through Phase IIa through 2027. AbbVie will continue to support Calico in its early R&D efforts and, following completion of Phase IIa studies, will have the option to manage late-stage development and commercial activities. Both parties will share costs and profits. AbbVie and Calico will each commit to contribute an additional $500 million to the collaboration.
 
Since 2014, the collaboration has produced more than two dozen early-stage programs addressing disease states across oncology and neuroscience and yielded new insights into the biology of aging. 
 
“We’ve built a successful collaboration – both scientifically and culturally – that is advancing cutting-edge science,” said Michael Severino, M.D., executive vice president, research and development, chief scientific officer, AbbVie. “Calico has attracted an outstanding team of world-class scientists and the extension of this collaboration allows us to further build on the research we’ve done to identify transformative treatment options for patients with age-related diseases.”
 
“Our collaboration with AbbVie has fully met our high expectations,” said Dr. Levinson.  “Our initial agreement created a unique partnership and this extension will accelerate further our efforts to understand the science of aging to advance novel therapies for patients.”