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The city's largest hospital system will try its hand at highstakes investing.
Clarian Health Partners is forming its own venture-capital fund, called Clarian Health Ventures, to invest in fast-growing companies and finance the commercialization of research conducted at Clarian or by its staff.
Clarian's goal is to make better returns on at least part of its $1.5 billion investment portfolio - which it then can put back into its academic and health care operations.
Clarian has hired R. Matthew Neff, an old friend of Clarian CEO Dan Evans, to run the fund.
Neff this month left his position as CEO of Senex Services Corp., a medical debt-buying company he partly owns.
Clarian will invest $3 million to launch its venture fund. But Evans said the hospital hasn't determined how much it will put in the fund in the future.
"This is a long-term play. We expect this to be a 20-year play," Evans said. "We expect to give further funds to it, to reinvest returns, and maybe even invite others to participate."
Clarian, which includes Methodist Hospital, the Indiana University Medical Center, Riley Hospital for Children and three hospitals outside of Indianapolis, had $1.6 billion in revenue last year.
The new fund represents an unusual but not unheard of move by a hospital. For example, St. Louis-based Ascension Health, which owns St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, started a $125 million venture fund in 2001.
Since its creation, Ascension Health Ventures has invested in health care companies providing innovative products or services, such as specialized drug delivery, highly precise glucose testing or patient monitoring for use during invasive surgery.
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