Google's next foray into ventures other than its famous search engine is research into curing diseases related to age.

Calico, the new company Google has designated for the research program, will be working with U.S. drugmaker AbbVie to study diseases of aging at new facilities in the San Francisco Bay area, Reuters reported.

"Calico expects to begin filling critical positions immediately and plans to establish a substantial team of scientists and research staff in the San Francisco Bay area," the companies said in a joint release quoted by Reuters.

The two companies will each pony up an initial $250 million to invest in the partnership. They may eventually invest as much as $1.5 billion together if the collaboration is successful.

"Calico will set up a world-class research and development facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we will explore the basic biology of aging and develop new medicines for patients with aging-related diseases," Arthur D. Levinson, Calico's new CEO, said in a Google+ post quoted by the New York Times Bits blog.  

The new facility will explore diseases that affect elderly people, including cancer and neurodegeneration.

Calico and AbbVie will split costs equally as well as profits if commercial drugs are eventually developed.

"AbbVie will use its deep pharmaceutical expertise to provide scientific and clinical development support and its commercial expertise to ensure these therapies are widely available," Levinson said.

Calico, which will operate separately from Google, will work to discover new drugs and analyze them in early stage trials.

"This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to exploring new areas of medicine," said Richard Gonzalez, AbbVie's chief executive, as quoted by Reuters.

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