The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) City Deal has made a £2m minor equity investment in Pharmatelligence, a Cardiff-based healthcare data specialist.
Pharmatelligence already has a world-leading reputation in the analysis of real-world data for healthcare organisations and major pharmaceutical companies. Now, its new software product, Livingstone, aims to combine that expertise with cutting-edge data technologies.
This latest investment from CCR is in line with its strategy of supporting innovative local companies in priority sectors and industries of the future in order to promote growth and create high-value sustainable employment within the region.
Built around NHS data, carefully anonymised at source to protect patient identities, the Livingstone software is intended to be the first of its kind worldwide, automating the analysis of large volumes of data to generate scientific-quality reports in real time for NHS and pharmaceutical industry users. This is of particular significance in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic and future global health issues.
Livingstone, which will be subject to a phased rollout plan, will be licensed as software as a service (SaaS) to industry users under a subscription model.
Peter Fox, Vice Chair of the CCR Cabinet and Leader Monmouthshire County Council, said: “Pharmatelligence is widely regarded as a thought leader in their scientific discipline and I am delighted we have been able to invest in this innovative business and support their ambitions to commercialise this game-changing software.
“This project is fully aligned with our investment objectives and outcomes, most notably in the proposed employment and ongoing training of a significant number of graduates and postgraduates in highly skilled, highly paid future-proofed jobs.
“The benefits to the wider economy are also significant, with the likelihood that Pharmatelligence will attract footfall in South Wales from global pharmaceutical companies, with all the ensuing additional trickle-down benefits into the local economy that this will bring.
“We have every confidence in Pharmatelligence’s ability to deliver and that this investment will help play a significant part in realising our CCR strategic ambition to become a regional centre of excellence in medical diagnostics.”
Professor Craig Currie, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Pharmatelligence, said: “We are delighted to have agreed this investment which illustrates the potential value of Livingstone.
“Our ambition is to employ many of the best graduates from local universities to evolve a novel software platform that is second to none. Livingstone will allow us to conduct complex scientific studies in a few hours compared with the months it often takes us presently.
“Our future plans will always keep Livingstone in the vanguard of real-world healthcare data analysis.”
