Former special adviser to PM launches firm to speed up clinical research

A former special adviser to the Prime Minister has publicly launched a firm to speed up clinical research into new health treatments.

Michael Young, together with Meri Beckwith, launched Lindus Health with around £3.7 million in seed funding from technology and healthcare investors such as Firstminute Capital, Presight Capital, Seedcamp and Hambro Perks.

The pair aim to cut the costs of bringing new drugs to market through less expensive clinical trials and better technology, and have created a new clinical trial platform.

They say this will result in faster, safer clinical trials that lead to better health outcomes for the public.

Current trials run by Lindus include several from the universities of Oxford, Leeds, Brunel and Nottingham.

Mr Young said: “During my time in government, I heard time and time again that the way clinical trials are conducted is broken.

“This means that patients are missing out on lifesaving treatments.

“To fix this requires a totally new business model for clinical trials. So we founded Lindus Health to do just that and to enable the next generation of healthcare companies.”

Mr Beckwith said: “Traditional clinical research companies are dinosaurs.

“Taking part in a Covid vaccine trial was like stepping into a time machine.

“This was one of the best-funded trials in history but research was done on pen and paper and participants had to go into hospital at the height of the pandemic to fill out forms.

“We founded Lindus Health to make it easier for patients to participate in research, and accelerate the development of new treatments.”