Lightship, a provider of enterprise level, direct-to-patient clinical research solutions, announced a $20 million investment led by McKesson Ventures and Define Ventures with participation from Khosala Ventures, Brook Byers, and Marc Benioff.
“We launched Lightship over a year ago to transform the existing research landscape,” said Lightshp Co-founder Alon Krashinsky. “Delivered at enterprise scale, we believe this model will accelerate clinical research by as much as 30 to 50 percent. We are thrilled to be able to work with McKesson Ventures and Define Ventures to continue to drive towards that goal.”
The latest round of financing will allow Lightship to continue to build a team to deliver direct-to-patient clinical research and further develop its clinical research technology platform to ensure operational excellence in upcoming trial launches.
“We continue to observe broad industry support for new approaches to lower drug development costs and increase access to relevant trials,” said McKesson Ventures Managing Director Dave Schulte. “We believe Lightship’s innovating clinical research model will directly address these issues and allow research dollars to be invested more efficiently towards the development of life-saving drugs.”
The company also announced the appointment of David MacMurchy as CEO and Tom Pike as Executive Chairman. MacMurchy most recently worked at PRA Health Sciences, where he led the organization’s Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa business as Executive Vice President. Prior to that, he was Ernst & Young’s Markets Leader for Life Sciences, Consumer Products, and Retail Practice.
“The team that has come together to build this business has the right combination of experiences to successfully deliver this new clinical research model,” MacMurchy said. “I’m excited to apply my experience serving some of the most innovative companies in pharma to deliver this new model, and I am honored by the opportunity to lead the organization and truly revolutionize how clinical research is delivered in the marketplace.”
MacMurchy and Schulte will join Lynne Chou O’Keefe of Define Ventures, Samir Kaul of Khosala Ventures, Krashinsky, and Pike on the Lightship board of directors.
Read the original press release here.