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Roivant Sciences Ltd.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: ROIV
IndustryPharmaceuticals
FoundedApril 7, 2014; 9 years ago (2014-04-07)
FounderVivek Ramaswamy
HeadquartersBasel, Switzerland
Key people
Matt Gline (CEO)
RevenueIncrease US$61 million (fiscal 2023)
Decrease −US$1.1 billion (fiscal 2023)
Total assetsDecrease US$2.39 billion (fiscal 2023)
Total equityDecrease US$1.61 billion (fiscal 2023)
OwnerVivek Ramaswamy (10.5%)
Number of employees
904 (fiscal 2023)
Websiteroivant.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

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

History

Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant in 2014.[3] Ramaswamy's initial strategy was to in-license drug candidates and create subsidiaries focused on distinct therapeutic areas.[4] 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, a majority-owned public company focused on autoimmune diseases, to privately held Dermavant Sciences, a commercial-stage company[5] focused on medical dermatology.[6]

Roivant also develops healthcare technologies through its business unit Roivant Health. Roivant built and launched Datavant, which allows healthcare institutions to share data, and was merged with Coix[7] to become a $7 billion company. Roivant's technology portfolio also includes Lokavant, which integrates clinical trial data to identify and mitigate risks in pharmaceutical development.[6][8] In 2017, Roivant partnered with the private equity arm of Chinese state-owned CITIC Group to form Sinovant.[9][10][11] As of 2019, Roivant had over forty investigational drugs in development in fourteen therapeutic areas across its family of companies.[12] 

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.[13] The deal included the option for Sumitomo to acquire up to six additional subsidiaries.[14]

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).[15] Additionally, in April, Datavant 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.[16]

In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO. Matt Gline, previously the company's chief financial officer, became CEO.[17] In February 2021, Roivant acquired Silicon Therapeutics, a small-molecule drug designer and computational physics platform, for $450 million in Roivant equity.[18][19] In October 2021, Roivant merged with special-purpose acquisition company Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. to become listed on the Nasdaq.[20]

In June 2022, Roivant and Pfizer unveiled Priovant Therapeutics.[21] Priovant was established in September 2021 through a transaction between Roivant and Pfizer,[22] in which Pfizer licensed oral and topical brepocitinib's global development rights and US and Japan commercial rights to Priovant. Pfizer holds a 25% equity ownership interest in Priovant. Brepocitinib is a potential first-in-class dual, selective inhibitor of TYK2 and JAK1; in all five placebo-controlled studies completed to date, oral brepocitinib generated statistically significant and clinically meaningful results. Later that year in December 2022, Roivant and Pfizer announced [23] their third partnership to create a new Vant [24] focused on developing TL1A drug candidates for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. As of February 2023, Roivant's reported market cap was over $6 billion.[25]

Axovant, owned by Roivant's Sio Gene Therapies, which failed testing in the end, has been accused of being a pump-and-dump scheme.[26][27][28][29]

In December 2023, Roche completed the acquisition of Telavant from Roivant for a purchase price of $7.1 billion upfront and a near-term milestone payment of $150 million.[30][31]

Subsidiaries and former subsidiaries

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

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:[35]

Roivant is a major shareholder of Datavant, which was co-founded with Travis May to link disparate healthcare datasets.[41] In October 2020, Datavant announced it raised funds from Roivant alongside Transformation Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and Cigna.[42]

In June 2018, Roivant laid off 67 employees and reassigned 130 to subsidiaries.[43]

In March 2020, Roivant announced it is developing gimsilumab, an anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (anti-GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody to prevent and treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with COVID-19.[44] In April 2020, Roivant started the administration of gimsilumab to COVID-19 patients in the United States.[45]

Funding

The company received millions of dollars from hedge funds such as QVT in the early days of its existence.[46] Later, it was able to raise US$200 million, with help from NovaQuest Capital Management.[47]

PE/Growth round funding
Year Amount
2019
 
 $1 billion
2018
 
 $200 million
2017
 
 $1.1 billion
2015
 
 $500 million
2014
 
 $93 million
Sources:[48][3][49]

References

  1. ^ "FY2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commisssion. 28 June 2023. Archived from the original on 26 August 2023. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  2. ^ "2023 Proxy Statement". Archived from the original on 2023-09-02. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  3. ^ a b "Roivant Company Overview". Roivant Company Website.
  4. ^ Spalding, Rebecca (13 November 2018). "SoftBank-Backed Biotech Roivant Climbs to $7 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Dermavant Sciences". Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  6. ^ a b Loizos, Connie (14 November 2018). "Biotech holding company Roivant raised $200M in funding at a whopping $7B valuation". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  7. ^ Landi, Heather (June 9, 2021). "How Datavant's $7B deal with Ciox Health impacts the health data market". Fierece Healthcare. Archived from the original on 2023-03-31.
  8. ^ "Roivant Sciences launches Lokavant for clinical trial monitoring". Clinical Trials Arena. 14 January 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  9. ^ Aronoff, Kate (2023-02-22). "GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Who Used to Do Business With China, Wants to Ban Business With China". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  10. ^ Keown, Alex (July 17, 2018). "Roivant Launches New China-Based Startup Sinovant Sciences". BioSpace. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  11. ^ Carroll, John (July 17, 2018). "Vivek Ramaswamy strikes again, this time launching a Beijing-based biotech player with a pipeline". Endpoints News. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
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