Pandemic Preparedness

 
• By Ellen Licking
  
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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced their newest fund for pandemic preparedness Feb 16,2006. The fund's potential to do good is enormous, but skeptics question whether or not it can make money.

On February 16, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced its newest and perhaps most controversial venture ever: a $200 million fund called the KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund whose stated goal is to "accelerate innovations for worldwide pandemic preparedness and global health over the next three years." The venture firm plans to make investments in four main areas--surveillance and detection, diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs--but hasn't commented publicly on potential asset allocation. In recent weeks, it has announced sizeable investments in two public companies that are developing antiviral agents against influenza, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novavax Inc. [See Deal], [See Deal]

Despite its relatively small size, KPCB's pandemic fund has garnered lots of attention and accolades—and rightly so. Tremendous good can...

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