Abbvie and Longtime Westwood & Wilshire Client Calico Continue to Partner with $1B Commitment

Calico, the Google-backed anti-aging biotech, recommitted to the Research & Development alliance they struck up with Abbvie seven years ago. Now, for the second time since that initial deal, each company put $500 million more into the partnership to continue moving forward on the 20+ early-stage programs in their shared pipeline.

Westwood & Wilshire first partnered with Calico in 2016. Over the years, we have made seven placements at the company, including Bill Cho, the Head of Clinical Sciences, and more recently Jonathan Powell, Head of Oncology Research. We are currently actively recruiting with Calico on both a medical director and program team leader roles. The biotech has always been exciting to follow and recruit with, in part due to their interesting and extensive partnership with Abbvie. The terms of the contract will allow this partnership to continue, with Calico leading research and early development up to phase 2a, before Abbvie steps in for late-stage development and sales.

Aarif Khakoo, Head of Research and Development, who Westwood & Wilshire recruited to Calico in 2019, spoke to the partnership, "Our three clinical initiatives and more than 20 discovery and preclinical programs to date are clear evidence of how productive a partnership we've established. This additional extension validates our original vision and is a testament to the collective efforts of many people from both organizations who are working to deepen our understanding of specific disease pathways and develop novel therapies for patients."