Roivant Sciences

Last updated
Roivant Sciences Ltd.
Company type Public
Industry Pharmaceuticals
FoundedApril 7, 2014;10 years ago (2014-04-07)
Founder Vivek Ramaswamy
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Key people
Matt Gline (CEO)
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$125 million (2024)
Increase2.svg US$4.24 billion (2024) [lower-alpha 1]
Increase2.svg US$4.35 billion (2024) [lower-alpha 1]
Total assets Increase2.svg US$7.22 billion (2024) [lower-alpha 1]
Total equity Increase2.svg US$6.45 billion (2024) [lower-alpha 1]
Owner Vivek Ramaswamy (10.5%)
Number of employees
908 (2024)
Website roivant.com
Footnotes /references
Financials as of 31 March 2024. [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. [3]

Contents

History

Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant in 2014. [4] Ramaswamy's initial strategy was to in-license drug candidates and create subsidiaries focused on distinct therapeutic areas. [5] 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 [6] focused on medical dermatology. [7]

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 [8] 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. [7] [9] In 2017, Roivant partnered with the private equity arm of Chinese state-owned CITIC Group to form Sinovant. [10] [11] [12] As of 2019, Roivant had over forty investigational drugs in development in fourteen therapeutic areas across its family of companies. [13]  

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. [14] The deal included the option for Sumitomo to acquire up to six additional subsidiaries. [15]

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). [16] 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. [17]

In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO. Matt Gline, previously the company's chief financial officer, became CEO. [18] In February 2021, Roivant acquired Silicon Therapeutics, a small-molecule drug designer and computational physics platform, for $450 million in Roivant equity. [19] [20] In October 2021, Roivant merged with special-purpose acquisition company Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. to become listed on the Nasdaq. [21]

In June 2022, Roivant and Pfizer unveiled Priovant Therapeutics. [22] Priovant was established in September 2021 through a transaction between Roivant and Pfizer, [23] 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 [24] their third partnership to create a new Vant [25] focused on developing TL1A drug candidates for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. As of February 2023, Roivant's reported market cap was over $6 billion. [26]

Axovant, owned by Roivant's Sio Gene Therapies, which failed testing in the end, has been accused of being a pump-and-dump scheme. [27] [28] [29] [30]

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. [31] [32]

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. [43] In October 2020, Datavant announced it raised funds from Roivant alongside Transformation Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and Cigna. [44]

In June 2018, Roivant laid off 67 employees and reassigned 130 to subsidiaries. [45]

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. [46] In April 2020, Roivant started the administration of gimsilumab to COVID-19 patients in the United States. [47]

Funding

The company received millions of dollars from hedge funds such as QVT in the early days of its existence. [48] Later, it was able to raise US$200 million, with help from NovaQuest Capital Management. [49]

PE/Growth round funding
YearAmount
2019
$1 billion
2018
$200 million
2017
$1.1 billion
2015
$500 million
2014
$93 million
Sources: [50] [4] [51]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gain on sale of Telavant contributed $5.35bn. [1]

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