Lightpoint Medical Expands Executive Leadership Team with Appointment of Graeme Smith to CEO

CHESHAM, England and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lightpoint Medical, a medical device company developing cancer detection tools for minimally-invasive and robot-assisted surgery, announced today that it has expanded its executive leadership team as part of its ambitious growth plans.

Lightpoint has appointed Graeme Smith to the position of CEO to focus on the commercialization of the company's recently approved miniaturized surgical probe, SENSEI®.

As Executive Chair, Dr. David Tuch, CEO since founding the company, will work closely with Graeme through the transition and have a renewed focus on scientific and technical leadership; corporate partnerships; and future growth opportunities.

Graeme is a seasoned medtech industry executive with nearly three decades of experience successfully driving profitable business growth at global medical device companies. He has an exceptional track record in medical device sales and marketing; distributor management; and corporate financing.

Most recently Graeme successfully led OstomyCure, an innovative medical device company developing technology to treat inflammatory bowel diseases. He will continue to serve OstomyCure as non-executive Chair.

Lightpoint's executive leadership team includes Claire Woodthorpe, who remains as Chief Operations Officer, and new hires including Heads of Commercial Operations, Clinical, and Manufacturing.

Dr. David Tuch, Executive Chair of Lightpoint Medical commented, "The expansion of the executive leadership team at Lightpoint is central to our growth plans. As CEO, Graeme brings the ideal skills and experience needed to take our company forward as we begin to commercialize our first approved surgical probe, SENSEI®. 

Graeme's appointment will enable me to focus on future growth opportunities for Lightpoint. The field of nuclear medicine is at an extremely exciting stage of evolution with the emergence of highly specific cancer-targeted radiopharmaceuticals. I want to ensure that Lightpoint's technologies are at the forefront of this revolution. I am extremely excited about our potential to transform surgical outcomes for patients across a range of major cancer types."

Graeme Smith, CEO of Lightpoint Medical said, "I am delighted join Lightpoint as CEO and look forward to working closely with David and the entire team. The company's new miniaturized probe, SENSEI®, is an incredibly exciting technology, promising accurate real-time cancer detection for minimally invasive and robot-assisted cancer surgery. I will focus initially on early commercialization of SENSEI® in the fields of prostate and gynaecological cancers with an outlook to expand across a range of major cancer indications. We are aiming through our clinical program to demonstrate a significant increase in the efficacy of cancer surgery using SENSEI® in combination with truly ground-breaking new cancer-targeted radiopharmaceuticals."

About Lightpoint Medical

Lightpoint Medical is developing miniaturized imaging and sensing tools for intra-operative cancer detection. The company is addressing the urgent medical challenge that despite technological advances in robotic platforms, surgeons lack the tools to accurately detect cancer intra-operatively. As a result, cancer is often left behind or more healthy tissue than needed is removed, increasing the need for adjuvant therapies, causing post-surgical complications, and escalating healthcare costs.

By exploiting advances in miniaturized sensor technologies and the development of cancer-targeted radiopharmaceuticals, such as ^99mTc-PSMA (Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen) for prostate cancer, Lightpoint is developing miniature tools appropriate in scale for minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery to accurately detect cancer in real-time intra-operatively. The aims of the tools are to aid surgical decision making, improve patient outcomes, and decrease costs for healthcare systems.

Lightpoint has a pipeline of miniaturized surgical tools in development with the first, SENSEI®, recently approved for sale by regulators in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. The first commercial focus is prostate and gynaecological cancer surgery with a planned expansion into other solid tumor types.

For more information about the company visit: www.lightpointmedical.com; www.senseisurgical.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Media Contacts: 

Jo O'Shea
Lightpoint Medical
joanne.oshea@lightpointmedical.com 

Helen Shik
Shik Communications LLC
Shik.helen10@gmail.com