Foresight Group, an award-winning listed infrastructure and private equity investment manager, has invested £3 million of growth capital into NorthWest EHealth Limited (NWEH), providers of software and services to the clinical trials market. Our Corporate team acted as advisors to NWEH on the deal.
Established in 2016, NWEH grew out of a collaboration between the University of Manchester, Salford Royal Foundation NHS Trust and Salford Clinical Commissioning Group. Its products provide the life sciences industry with an alternative approach to clinical trial design and management. NWEH’s leading-edge technologies help run trials more cost effectively, from feasibility studies to the World’s first large scale Phase III trial using data directly from source electronic health records (EHR).
With Foresight’s support, NWEH aims to become a leading provider of clinical trials and data-driven trial design, feasibility and recruitment. The investment will be used to expand the current data network, enabling the Company to deliver a larger number of trials at a global level, increase product development and expand the sales and marketing team to help build long term, strategic relationships. The existing team have strong credentials in their field and are led by founder and CEO Martin Gibson.
Customers include several of the largest global pharmaceutical and research companies, such as GSK, Novartis and PPD. The market opportunity is vast, with global clinical trials estimated to be worth $69 billion annually and forecast to grow at a rate of 5.7% per year until 2026. The UK is one of the leading global markets for clinical trials, currently worth £3 billion per year, with life sciences identified as a priority sector by the UK Government post-Brexit.
Foresight is committed to working towards a smarter future by supporting SMEs with the potential to have a positive impact on society. NWEH’s innovative technology seeks to reduce the cost of running clinical trials and increase the efficiency of clinical trials, in turn contributing to improved medical treatment and a healthier population.
Our Head of Technology Piers Dryden said: “The past 12 months have only served to underline the importance of clinical trials and the innovative businesses who are able to facilitate them with speed and reliability. NorthWest EHealth is an outstanding example of the region’s world-class life sciences sector in action, developing cutting-edge technologies that will benefit healthcare globally. Growth capital is essential for businesses like NorthWest EHealth to scale their offering and we’re only too pleased to have assisted the management team, through our strengths in both the tech and healthcare space, in securing the right partner to achieve its future growth ambitions.”
You can read more about the deal on the NWEH website.
