SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) – Roivant, a biotech company founded by 32-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has raised $1.1 billion, one of the largest ever in the life sciences sector. The leading contributor was Japanese company SoftBank.
Roivant Sciences Group has five subsidiaries, all based in the U.S. They are focused on different areas: Axovant for neurology; Dermavant for dermatology; Enzyvant for rare diseases; Myovant for women’s health & endocrine diseases; and Urovant for urology.
All five of these subsidiaries are growing at a good pace with consumer demand allowing them to expand in numerous ways. Most recently, they began working with pharma executive recruiters in order to hire new scientists and qualified professionals that would allow them to continue their growth. Without qualified talent, they won’t be able to deliver on the promises made to the company’s funding contributors.
Roivant scours to find pharmaceutical drugs of other companies that are unable to advance due to varying constraints, including financial woes. Roivant then initiates clinical and nonclinical studies, which often advances the potential for important drug development.
“Ramaswamy observed how big pharma firms would abandon promising drugs due to various reasons that were not related to their efficacy … Having earned the trust of QVT was key. The firm, along with Dexcel Pharma, an Israeli firm that reviewed Ramaswamy’s work at QVT, provided Ramaswamy’s new holding company with just less than $100 million in capital,” a recent TechCrunch article stated.
That article notes while Silicon Valley has obsessed over health tech company Theranos, whose fortunes crashed last year, “Ramaswamy has acquired a dozen drugs, including an Alzheimer’s pill that’s now named intepirdine.” Axovant Sciences was formed in part to research involving that drug. Axovant Sciences went public in 2015.
He co-founded and served as president of Campus Venture Network, a technology company that was acquired in 2009 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He worked at hedge fund QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014, where he co-managed the firm’s biotech portfolio.
Ramaswamy was ranked the 24th richest American entrepreneur under 40 in Forbes’ 2016 list with a net worth at $600 million.
His family is originally from Kerala, though he was born in Cincinnati. He attended Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in biology. He also holds a Juris doctorate from Yale Law School. He was a nationally ranked tennis player in high school.
