$1.5 billion to fight death

Calico, a company backed by Google, will collaborate with pharmaceutical giant AbbVie for the development of drugs against diseases associated with aging. Each partner agrees to provide $ 250 million funding opportunity to add another 500 million, thus the project can receive up to $ 1.5 billion, says The Verge.

The funds will be used to create a new research center in San Francisco, where Calico will appoint a team of scientists to develop new drugs. AbbVie will focus on clinical trials, the last stages of development and paving the way for the new drugs to the market.

Google introduced Calico to the world with the daring ambition to "cure death." Google's co-founder Larry Page, the director of venture operations Bill Maris and Futurist Ray Kurzweill, that Google hired as director of engineering, expressed deep interest in radical life extension.

The company has not yet reported the details about achieving this goal.

Page told  "Time" magazine that one of the things he considers remarkable is that if  a cure for cancer iss found, three more years will be added to the average life expectancy. Looking at the first steps of Calico, the new partnership seems less futuristic, but still bold and ambitious.