Roivant Sciences

Roivant Sciences is a healthcare company focused on applying technology to drug development. Roivant builds subsidiary biotech and healthcare technology companies. Roivant was founded by Vivek Ramaswamy in 2014.

Roivant Sciences
Private
IndustryPharmaceuticals
Founded2014 (2014)
FounderVivek Ramaswamy
HeadquartersBasel
Websitewww.roivant.com

History

Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant Sciences in 2014.[1] Focused on aligning incentives and improving capital efficiency, Ramaswamy's initial strategy was to in-license drug candidates and create subsidiaries focused on distinct therapeutic areas.[2][3] This strategy expanded to include developing earlier stage drug candidates and platform technologies. Roivant is a parent company to over a dozen subsidiaries ranging from Immunovant Sciences, a majority-owned public company focused on autoimmune diseases, to privately-held Dermavant Sciences, focused on medical dermatology.[4]

Roivant also develops healthcare technologies through subsidiaries such as Datavant, which helps healthcare institutions share and aggregate data, and Lokavant, which integrates clinical trial data sources to identify and mitigate risks in pharmaceutical development.[4][5] As of 2019, Roivant had over 40 investigational drugs in development in 14 therapeutic areas across its family companies.[6] 

In addition to Vivek Ramaswamy, the company's leadership includes: Mayukh Sukhatme, Matthew Gline, Eric Venker,[7] Rakhi Kumar,[8] and Ben Zimmer. As of 2017, Roivant was valued at $7 billion.[9]

At the end of 2019, Roivant formed a $3 billion partnership with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and transferred its ownership stake in five of its subsidiaries: Myovant Sciences, Urovant Sciences, Enzyvant Therapeutics, Altavant Sciences, and Spirovant Sciences, which now sit under Sumitovant Biopharma.[10] The deal included the option for Sumitomo to acquire up to 6 additional subsidiaries.[11]

In April 2020, Roivant dosed the first patient in a clinical study evaluating gimsilumab in COVID-19 patients for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).[12] Additionally, in April, Datavant Sciences announced that its technology is being used to create a pro-bono COVID-19 research database to help public health and policy researchers combat the pandemic.[13]

Subsidiaries

As of April 2020, the company's subsidiaries include:

  • Alyvant, focused on using technology to improve the commercialization of medicines.[14]
  • Aruvant Sciences, launched in partnership with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, established to develop gene therapies for hematological diseases.[15]
  • Axovant, a gene therapy company focused on developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.[16][17] In June 2018, the company licensed worldwide rights to AXO-Lenti-PD, an investigational gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, from Oxford BioMedica. Axovant is also developing gene therapies for GM1 gangliosidosis and GM2 gangliosidosis, including Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases.[18]
  • Cytovant, which is focused on developing cellular therapeutics in Asia.
  • Datavant, created to break down silos between healthcare datasets and connect the world's health data.[19]
  • Dermavant, focused on developing therapeutics in medical dermatology, with lead candidate tapinarof in development for the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.[20]
  • Genevant, created to work on RNA-based therapeutics.[21]
  • Immunovant, launched in July 2018 to develop therapies for autoimmune diseases, with lead candidate IMVT-1401 being developed for the treatment of myasthenia gravis, Graves’ ophthalmopathy, and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia.[22]
  • Lokavant, which is focused on improving clinical trial monitoring.[10]
  • Metavant, which focuses on cardiometabolic disease and has rights to LGD-6972, a glucagon receptor antagonist, and imeglimin.[23]
  • Respivant, created to develop therapies for patients with respiratory diseases, with lead asset RVT-1602 in development for the treatment of IPF cough.[24]
  • Sinovant, launched in 2018 to develop treatments for use in China.[25]

The following subsidiaries were previously a part of Roivant, but were included as part of a strategic transaction with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma which closed in December 2019:[26]

  • Altavant Sciences, which is developing a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension.[27]
  • Enzyvant Therapeutics, which is focused on developing therapies for rare diseases.[28]
  • Myovant Sciences, founded in partnership with Takeda to develop medicines for women's health and prostate cancer.[29]
  • Spirovant, which focused on developing gene therapies for cystic fibrosis.[30]
  • Urovant, which is developing lead candidate vibegron, licensed from Merck.[31]

In June 2018, Roivant laid off 67 employees and reassigned 130 to subsidiaries.[32] In December 2019, Roivant transferred five of its subsidiaries for US$3 billion dollars — Myovant, Urovant, Enzyvant, Altavant and Spirovant, in addition to a greater than 10% share in itself — to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma.[33]

In March 2020, Roivant announced it is developing gimsilumab, an anti-GM-CSF monoclonal antibody, to prevent and treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with COVID-19.[34]

In April 2020, Roivant started giving US COVID-19 patients their experimental medicine, Gimsilumab.[35]

Funding
PE/Growth round funding
Year Amount
2019
 
 $1 billion
2018
 
 $200 million
2017
 
 $1.1 billion
2015
 
 $500 million
2014
 
 $93 million
Sources:[36][1][36][37]

References
  1. Vardi, Nathan (9 September 2015). "The 30-Year-Old CEO Conjuring Drug Companies From Thin Air". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  2. Spalding, Rebecca. "SoftBank-Backed Biotech Roivant Climbs to $7 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. Spalding, Rebecca. "SoftBank-Backed Biotech Roivant Climbs to $7 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg.
  4. Loizos, Connie. "Biotech holding company Roivant Sciences raised $200M in funding at a whopping $7B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  5. "Roivant Sciences launches Lokavant for clinical trial monitoring". Clinical Trials Arena. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  6. Arnum, Patricia Van. "Emerging Pharma: Roivant Sciences on the Rise". DCATVCI. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  7. "Eric Venker, Chief Operating Officer at Roivant Sciences Ltd. - Relationship Science". relationshipscience.com. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  8. "3 of Vivek Ramaswamy's 'Vant Companies in the News: Roivant, Dermavant and Urovant". BioSpace. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  9. "Roivant Sciences launches new Alyvant subsidiary". MedCity News. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  10. "On Heels of the Sale of Five Vants, Roivant Launches New Company Lokavant". BioSpace. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  11. "Roivant offloads biotech stakes in $3B alliance with Japanese pharma". BioPharma Dive. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  12. "COVID-19 therapeutics tracker". www.raps.org. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  13. Haggin, Patience (2020-04-08). "Companies Seek to Pool Medical Records to Create Coronavirus Patient Registry". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  14. Keown, Alex. "A New Day, a New Vant. Roivant Launches Alyvant Ahead of J.P. Morgan 2019". BioSpace. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  15. J. Brunsman, Barrett. "Cincinnati Children's inks biggest commercialization deal ever (Video)". Cincinnati Business Courier. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  16. "10-K For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016". Axovant via SEC Edgar. June 6, 2016.
  17. Grover, Natalie (28 Apr 2016). "Acadia drug approval could clear way for Axovant dementia therapy". Reuters.
  18. Flanagan, Christin. "Gene Therapy Deal Helps Double Price of Beaten-Down Biotech Company's Shares". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  19. Carroll, John. "Tech maven Travis May takes the helm of Roivant's data mining startup". Endpoints News. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  20. Inc, Dermavant Sciences (2019-06-05). "Dermavant Sciences Announces First Patient Dosed in PSOARING, its Pivotal Phase 3 Clinical Program for Tapinarof for the Topical Treatment of Plaque Psoriasis". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  21. Carroll, John. "Vivek Ramaswamy is diving into RNA, launching a new biotech with Arbutus and a team of vets". Endpoints News. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  22. Keown, Alex. "Roivant Taps Genentech Veteran". BioSpace. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  23. Paul Taylor, Nick. "Roivant licenses Ligand diabetes drug, founds Metavant". FierceBiotech. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  24. Roivant Sciences. "Roivant Launches Respivant Sciences to Develop Innovative Therapeutics for Respiratory Diseases". www.prnewswire.com (Press release).
  25. "Roivant Launches New China-Based Startup Sinovant Sciences | BioSpace". BioSpace. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
  26. "Sumitomo Dainippon and Roivant Close Deal to Form Sumitovant Biopharma". BioSpace. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  27. Henderson, Jennifer. "Changes and headcount reduction at Roivant, but hiring expected in Durham". Bizjournals. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  28. Adams, Ben. "Roivant and Plexcera launch rare disease focused spinout". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  29. Leuty, Ron (27 October 2016). "Biggest biotech IPO this year is a small Peninsula company". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  30. Pagliarulo, Ned. "Roivant, Sumitomo alliance to target cystic fibrosis gene therapy". BioPharma Dive. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  31. Adams, Ben (June 7, 2017). "Roivant launches Urovant with phase 3 Merck med". FierceBiotech.
  32. Taylor, Nick Paul. "Roivant cuts staff, reassigns others in major reshuffle, as insider decries 'bloodbath'".
  33. Terry, Mark. "The Roivant-Sumitomo Deal: $3 Billion, 5 Companies, $550 Million in Loans and an Option on 6 More Companies" (Press release). BioSpace. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  34. "Roivant pivots towards ARDS in COVID-19". BioCentury. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  35. Reuters (2020-04-15). "Roivant Begins Giving Experimental COVID-19 Drug to First U.S. Patients". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  36. "Roivant, which creates companies around abandoned drugs, just raised $1.1 billion from SoftBank". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
  37. Spalding, Rebecca. "SoftBank-Backed Biotech Roivant Climbs to $7 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
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