Velocity Clinical Research expands to UK

Posted: 22 Nov 2022

London, UK – Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP (“GHO”), the European specialist investor in global healthcare, acknowledges the announcement from its portfolio company Velocity Clinical, regarding its expansion into the UK.

Velocity Clinical Research (“Velocity”), the leading integrated research site organisation, announced its expansion into the UK with the acquisition of multi-site company Egin Research.

Velocity is the first US-based clinical research sites business to expand into Europe, bringing its total number of dedicated research locations to 42. The addition of Egin Research’s two sites increases Velocity’s European site footprint to three, after its first European purchase in Hamburg, Germany in July 2022 and further growth expected over the next 12 months.

Dominic Clavell, Executive Vice President, Europe, said, “The size and importance of the UK market for clinical research cannot be underestimated. There is a focus on clinical trial regulation reform in a post-Brexit era to bring new treatments to patients faster.

“The region significantly contributed to COVID vaccine research, leading to the UK Government’s recent £800 million cash injection into the clinical trials industry to boost innovation, growth and patient safety. Velocity’s global scale and timely expansion into the UK means we are primed to take full advantage of the growing dedicated clinical research ecosystem and demand.”

Egin Research is a multi-site research company co-founded by Shivagami Muthiah and Dr. Ahmed Elshashai in 2019. Both co-founders have considerable experience setting up and running dedicated research facilities, having previously worked at a leading site management organisation (SMO).

Shivagami Muthiah, Business Director of Egin Research, believes that Egin’s ethos mirrors that of Velocity Clinical Research. “We are a team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare assistants with a passion for research. With Velocity’s support we will be able to accelerate our plan to expand the network, making clinical trials ever more available to patients.

Egin has plans for continued growth on the back of their early successes, as it integrates into Velocity’s global network. With support from Velocity, Egin will expand its therapeutic areas to recruit patients into trials for all ambulatory chronic diseases and some acute diseases.

Dr. Ahmed Elshashai, Chief Investigator at Egin Research, added, “We strive to provide the best experience for participants by considering their involvement in clinical trials as a journey that we go through together. It was evident from the start that Velocity had the same values in patient welfare and research quality.

Velocity’s sites are wholly owned and fully integrated via a centralised infrastructure and common technology backbone, allowing for superior patient enrollment and consistent, high-quality data delivery. As a result, Clinical Research Organisations and big pharmaceutical companies can benefit from simplified access to international clinical research.

About GHO Capital
Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, is a leading specialist healthcare investment advisor based in London. We apply global capabilities and perspectives to unlock high growth healthcare opportunities, targeting Pan-European and transatlantic internationalisation to build market leading businesses of strategic global value. Our proven investment track record reflects the unrivalled depth of our industry expertise and network. We partner with strong management teams to generate long-term sustainable value, improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery to enable better, faster, more accessible healthcare. For further information, please visit www.ghocapital.com.

About Velocity Clinical Research
Velocity Clinical Research, headquartered in Durham, N.C., is the leading integrated site organisation for clinical trials, offering dedicated site capabilities to help biopharmaceutical and contract research organisation customers find the right patients for their studies. Velocity supports global drug development in primarily conducting phase II and phase III clinical trials. The company has 40 locations globally.
We place the care of the patient at the heart of everything we do. With over 35 years of experience running sites and nearly 8,000 studies completed, Velocity has refined its patient recruitment strategies while maintaining a focus on delivering timely and reliable data quality. For more information, please visit www.velocityclinical.com/.

About Egin Research
Egin Research was founded in 2019 by Shivagami Muthiah, Business Director, and Dr. Ahmed Elshashai, Chief Investigator, with the vision of building a UK network of dedicated clinical research centres to serve patients and the biopharmaceutical industry with high quality execution of clinical trials.
Both Shiva and Ahmed have a strong background in research, having prior experience in recruiting patients within a dedicated research sites set-up. Their first clinic opened in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire followed by their second site in North Finchley, London, in 2022. Egin already counts many of the top 10 pharma companies as their clients and are seeing significant repeat business.
Egin delivers trials across a range of therapeutic areas, including autoimmune, respiratory, internal medicine such as diabetes, dermatology and women’s health. For more information, please visit www.eginresearch.com/.