ISIS prescribes replacement capital for software company

The UK mid-market firm has backed ScriptSwitch in its bid to save the National Health Service money on its annual drug bill of £8 billion.

ISIS Equity Partners has bought ScriptSwitch, a medicine-prescribing software company, using funds from the Baronsmead venture capital trusts it manages in a £9.9 million ($20.2 million; €14.2 million) replacement capital transaction.

ISIS invested £4.6 million for 32.5 percent of the equity.

Pills cost
£8bn a year

ScriptSwitch provides a medicine management tool to primary care trusts, which is then deployed in doctors' surgeries. If the software was deployed nationally across the NHS, it could save more than £400 million from the state-funded National Health Service's £8 billion annual drug bill, according to ISIS.

The business was established in 2001 by two Warwick University students and a pharmacist.

ISIS was instrumental in appointing Jim Horsburgh as non-executive chairman. He brings experience in the IT healthcare industry following his chairmanship of System C, a provider of patient administration systems to the secondary care market.

He guided System C through to a stock market flotation in 2005.

ISIS Equity Partners invests in small- to medium-sized businesses run by entrepreneurial managers. Its transactions range from £5 million to £75 million with equity investments running from £2 million to £30 million.