Hear the story of one of Scotland’s standout exits of 2023 

The trials of growing an international business

Harper Macleod, The Ca’d’oro, 45 Gordon Street, Glasgow, G1 3PE
Thursday 6^th June 2024

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Programme

Join us for a panel discussion on one of 2023’s standout exits for a Scottish tech company, featuring:

• Mark Wheeldon, founder and CEO, Formedix
• Darren Bill, COO and EMI option holder, Formedix
• Scott McIntosh, Team Leader, Equity Portfolio, Scottish Enterprise

Last year, the Glasgow-based healthcare technology business Formedix was acquired by the US-listed Certara, in one of 2023’s standout exits for a Scottish company.

Formedix was formed in 1998 by Mark Wheeldon. Following a pharmacy degree at the University of Strathclyde, and a stint conducting clinical trials in a pharmaceutical company, Mark was struck by how long it took to set up clinical trials, so set out to use software to make quicker and more cost effective.

In 2004, Mark launched the first ever clinical trial design software based on the Clinical Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards, the international pharmaceutical standards organisation which develops pharmaceutical standards for the capture and delivery of clinical data to regulatory authorities and is proven to improve efficiency, traceability and innovation in the trials process.

Following the acquisition, the goal is for Certara and Formedix to create one platform to automate clinical trial design and data flow, resulting in faster cycle time from clinical study set up to submission.

We’ll take our guests through the Formedix story from inception to exit, hearing from Mark on his experience along with Darren as an employee incentivised under an EMI option, as well as from Scottish Enterprise which was part of the early and growth investment stages.

In the last year, we’ve seen an increase in the number of companies using Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs) as part of their employee recruitment and retention strategies. We’ll hear first-hand from Formedix on how they used their EMI scheme to recognise and reward people who had helped drive growth. Darren will share his experience of being an option holder and then being able to participate in the exit.