Avalon Ventures and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp. haveformed Avalon Medical Partners, a 10-year limited partnershipthat will focus on creating start-up biopharmaceuticalcompanies.

The partnership, which closed Aug. 1, has funds in the "higheight-figure range," said Lawrence Bock, general partner atAvalon Ventures of La Jolla, Calif.

Avalon Medical, which Bock said is the first fund of its kind,will only fund companies that fit with Sandoz's areas ofstrategic interest. The fund is looking for companies thattarget the biochemistry of aging, neuroimmunology, themolecular biology of blood vessels and immune tolerance.

The fund will aim to create two to four new companiesannually and might make passive investments in others, Bocksaid.

Sandoz's goal is to have strategic partnerships with many ofthese companies. In the past, Bock said, pharmaceuticalcompanies that invested in venture funds have found that onlyone or two of the new companies fit their interests. -- KarenBernstein

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