Tom Rodgers has been a senior vice-president and managing director at McKesson Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of US-based healthcare provider McKesson, since its launch in 2014.
John Hammergren, McKesson’s chairman and CEO, said in 2014: “McKesson Ventures will help us support the development and commercialisation of innovations taking place across healthcare. By investing and partnering entrepreneurs and other investors that can bring new approaches to the challenges our customers are facing, we will accelerate the innovation cycle and further strengthen the value we provide to industry stakeholders across all segments.”
And the unit under Rodgers’s leadership has certainly met the expectations.
The biggest investment in which McKesson Ventures was involved was a $1.21bn series B round for US-based cancer test developer Grail in November 2017, with the oncology testing technology developer spun off from genomics technology producer Illumina, which raised $300m in May 2018, bringing its total funding to about $1.65bn.
However, McKesson Ventures has usually focused on smaller rounds. This year, it participated in a $63.4m series B round for US-based medical analytics technology developer Aetion, taking its total funding to $77m.
In 2018, McKesson Ventures contributed to a $32.5m round for US-based e-commerce company Pharmapacks in June and a $21m series B round for US-based cancer care software provider Oncology Analytics in November. The unit also co-led a $50m funding round in US-based healthcare concierge platform Accolade in March.
While in 2017, it led US-based prescription auditing service provider Truveris’s $25m series D round in September.
In 2018, McKesson Ventures participated in six new investments, resulting in 13 investment rounds of $40m in total.
Exits have also emerged, with $36m of realised returns:
- US-based digital respiratory therapeutics developer Propeller Health was acquired in January this year by connected medical devices provider ResMed for $225m.
- US-based life sciences analytics software developer Shyft, which counts the unit as an investor in its $20m series B round, was acquired by medical research technology provider Medidata for $195m in July 2018.
- US-based virtual clinic developer Carena was acquired by telehealth services provider Avizia for an undisclosed sum in October 2017.
Given such activity it has been little surprise Rodgers has added to his team with McKesson Ventures, hiring in 2017 Carrie Hurwitz Williams as principal – who was named GCV Rising Star in 2018 – and Irem Mertol in 2017 as a director. Anahita Nakhjiri joined in February 2018 as a senior associate and Mark Padilla was appointed chief counsel for the unit in March 2018.
More than a decade ago, Rodgers himself was vice-president of corporate strategy and business development for McKesson before joining venture capital firm Advanced Technology Ventures in 2004 where he was a partner for nearly eight years. He then had a two-and-a-half-year stint as director of strategic investments at healthcare technology provider Cambia Health Solutions before rejoining McKesson.
Rodgers holds a bachelor’s degree in history and sociology of science as well as chemistry from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the same university’s Wharton School.
