GSK invests in another startup fund along with J&J

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which is under growing investor pressure to improve its financials, is investing alongside Johnson & Johnson in another startup fund.

For the second time in a week, GSK moved to back new and emerging ventures in hopes of driving future growth.

On Tuesday in London, GSK and J&J were disclosed as $55 million investors each in a new $229 million fund launched by Index Ventures. Index, a backer of startups such as Skype and Dropbox in the past, decided to spin off its biotech investment group under the name Medicxi Ventures.

“The backing of J&J and GSK for Medicxi highlights the increasing interest of big pharma companies in early-stage life science investment as a way to identify promising assets beyond their own in-house laboratories,” reports The Financial Times.

The new fund will have a total of $1 billion under management.

A week ago, GSK, J&J and AstraZeneca helped form a new $50 million fund along with AstraZeneca and three universities called Apollo Therapeutics.