Amgen Announces the Formation of Amgen Ventures

Venture Capital Fund Designed to Provide Resources to Help Advance Early-Stage Biotechnology Companies and Human Therapeutics

15-Nov-2004

Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, announced the Formation of Amgen Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund designed to provide emerging biotechnology companies with resources to develop pioneering discoveries focused on human therapeutics. Amgen Ventures reflects Amgen's commitment to helping patients through cutting-edge science and is an important component of Amgen's overall outreach strategy. Amgen Ventures can offer early stage companies access to Amgen's extensive capabilities while providing Amgen with insight into external research innovations that may pave the way for future collaborations.

"Amgen is driven by a desire to transform science through innovation, and in this way to develop important new treatments for grievous illness. Our internal efforts concentrate on therapeutic areas such as oncology, metabolic disorders and inflammation. However, we understand that science is a global and collective endeavor, and that many of the scientific breakthroughs of tomorrow will come from early-stage companies," said Roger M. Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president research and development of Amgen. "We also understand the challenges that these companies face, and believe that Amgen Ventures can permit them to benefit from our experience, people and financial resources to bring meaningful treatments to patients."

With an initial commitment of $100 million, Amgen Ventures intends to invest in early-stage biotechnology companies focused on discovering and developing human therapeutics. The focus of the fund primarily will be in areas of current therapeutic interest to Amgen, but will also include novel modalities with the potential to address targets in both current and emerging therapeutic areas of interest. By bringing capital and access to Amgen's scientific and product development expertise, Amgen Ventures has the potential to help companies meet their early challenges and position them for success.

Amgen Ventures will be based in San Diego and will leverage existing Amgen sites including Seattle, San Francisco, Thousand Oaks, and Boston.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/40808/amgen-announces-the-formation-of-amgen-ventures.html