Dr. Sean Casey, a founder and former CEO of Virtual Radiologic Corp., has launched a new early stage venture fund, MedCity News has learned.
Omphalos Venture Partners, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, is targeting healthcare, consumer and information technology companies. (Omphalos, by the way, means central or focal point.)
Not sure how much Omphalos is trying to raise (the company didn’t immediately return a phone call) but the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently certified the firm to receive the angel investment tax credit.
So far, DEED has certified Twin Cities Angels II, Ninety-Seven Twenty-Three, LLC, and Wildwood Investors. That suggests the angel credit, at least on paper, is helping to create new angel money in town as opposed to just helping people who were going to invest anyway.
Casey, a radiologist who graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, founded Virtual Radiologic in 1999.
Using high-speed broadband connections and a proprietary software system, Virtual’s technology enables short-staffed emergency rooms to outsource “image reads” to radiologists around the country working out of offices or their homes.
Virtual Radiologic went public in 2007 and grew annual sales from $86 million to $121 million last year.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Casey did not leave Virtual Radiologic on good terms. Rob Kill replaced Casey as CEO in January 2009 in a planned succession, and Casey remained chairman.
However, less than three months later, Virtual said in its proxy statement that its board removed Casey as chairman and decided not to recommend him for re-election “based upon considerations of board size, board relationships and functionality, board composition and the desire to have Mr. Kill elected as a director.”
Still, Casey didn’t walk away empty handed. He remained the company’s second largest shareholder with 3.9 million shares, or 24 percent of Virtual Radiologic.
That means Providence Equity Partners’ recent $294 million buyout of Virtual Radiologic netted Casey around $68 million — a nice chunk of change from which to launch an angel fund.
Joining Casey at Omphalos is Mark Marlow, a former chief financial officer and treasurer at Virtual Radiologic.
