For those familiar with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the just-announced KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund comes as no surprise as the first offering of its kind. Partners John Doerr and Bill Joy, according to the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, have for years been warning about inadequate preparation for pandemics, and the firm, which last year brought on former Secretary of State Colin Powell as an adviser, has long invested in clean-technology companies. But some wonder whether the firm’s noble mission may be enough to make the $200 million fund a success. Daniel Primack of PE Week Wire notes that the firm has “hit its homeruns playing early-stage balls,” while the new fund will focus on later-stage companies, which would be in a better position to develop treatments. Primack also finds “troubling” the return-on-investment prospect that in the event of an actual pandemic, “Any company with a potential cure would have only one real customer – the federal government – and there is no way that free market rules would apply.”
