Venture Capitalist Backs Long-Shot Cancer-Cure Ideas
January 15, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Three grants worth a total of $1.3-million were awarded today to innovative cancer research that could not get money elsewhere, as part of a new grant-making approach underwritten by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Andrew Rachleff, retired co-founder of Benchmark Capital, is supporting a new cancer-research philanthropy in the hopes of increasing the pace of scientific developments.
Criticizing the cautious nature of many scientific grant makers, Mr. Rachleff characterized the National Institute of Health’s approach to making grants as “old guys giving money to old guys.”
Mr. Rachleff says his fund will borrow venture-capitalist approaches and take more risks than traditional approaches to financing science projects. He says that if even one of the approximately 18 projects he intends to support over the next six or seven years is successful, the enterprise will be a success.
His fund follows on the heels of a similar approach established by computer-industry millionaires such as Andy Grove, co-founder of Intel, who is afflicted with Parkinson’s disease and is trying to speed up research on his ailment.
