Ebb & Flow

NewcoGen Group and OneLiberty Ventures today were to announce the formation of Applied Genomic Technology Capital, a venture capital vehicle solely focused on genomics companies. The fund - with the genetically appropriate acronym of "AGTC" - has raised $70 million of its goal of $150-$200 million, with the initial money coming from corporate sponsors including Affymetrix(AFFX), Antigenics(AGEN) and Millennium(MLNM), in addition to OneLiberty Ventures, PaineWebber and institutions and selected individuals.

AGTC will provide seed and early-stage money to companies that are in a position to build value based on the genetic code. Having the code, according to managing partner Noubar Afeyan, will set off an applications race to create value from the genetic data. "It's like the operating system metaphor," Afeyan said. "It's the source code, but it needs to be organized. We've got a bunch of 0s and 1s but it doesn't mean anything until it's organized."...