Candesic forms healthcare unit

"We are targeting ourselves at investments of E10m and E200m - typically later stage biotech, medical devices, medical services, and pharma spin-outs," said practice leader Victor Chua, a former medical doctor from Cambridge who specialised in ophthalmic surgery before consulting.

Other members of the team include Dr. Leonid Shapiro, who has an MD from Duke University and a PhD in radiological physics from Oxford, and Dr. Sree Kaminemi, a former dentist. Other members of the team trained in Germany, Italy and Spain.

"We have worked for three private equity firms so far in deals worth between E10m and E150m," continued Dr. Chua. "We have been particularly good at accessing very senior opinion leaders of the British Orthopaedic Association and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, and we have spoken to reimbursement heads at Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, and the National Institute of Clinical Excellent. We have been able to access this level of opinion leader because of our medical backgrounds and connections.

"In order to save time and effort, we typically director our attention to the two or three key issues which make or break a deal - unlike some technical consultancies which can get caught up in the science. New healthcare technologies often compete with low-tech and inexpensive established treatments. In this cases it is often difficult to determine the true market size because it is driven by estimates of efficiency improvements often unknown at the time of the investment. We have developed a proprietary model for assessing true market size in this situation."

Candesic's principal office is in London and it is in the process of opening a satellite office in Paris.