MercuryNews.com | 02/16/2006 | Venture fund first to back biodefense

"One of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture-capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has raised the nation's first fund to invest in companies developing drugs and technologies to prevent and combat pandemics.The $200 million fund, expected to be announced today, accompanies the raising of a separate $600 million fund by the firm for its regular investment activities -- which include information technology, life sciences and other fast-growing industries.The pandemic fund, formally called the ``KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund,'' is significant because it comes at a time of heightened public awareness about the risks of a breakout of avian flu and other diseases. The bird-flu virus now spreading in Asia and Turkey can infect humans who come into contact with infected birds. If the virus mutates into a human-transmitted disease, it will move around the world with shocking speed, experts and governments have warned."