Roivant Sciences Ltd. is an American multinational healthcare company focused on applying technology to drug development and building subsidiary

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

and

health technology Health technology is defined by the World Health Organization as the "application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of liv ...

companies. It was founded in 2014 by

Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy (born August 9, 1985) is an American entrepreneur and politician. He founded Roivant Sciences, a Biotechnology, biotech Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical company in 2014 and was its Chief executive officer, CEO ...

and is currently headed by

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Matt Gline. Roivant maintains its

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

as well as major offices in the

biotech Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

hubs of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

History

Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant in 2014. Ramaswamy's initial strategy was to in-license drug candidates and create subsidiaries focused on distinct therapeutic areas. 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 A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

focused on

autoimmune disease An autoimmune disease is a condition that results from an anomalous response of the adaptive immune system, wherein it mistakenly targets and attacks healthy, functioning parts of the body as if they were foreign organisms. It is estimated tha ...

s, to privately held Dermavant Sciences, a commercial-stage company focused on medical

dermatology Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the Human skin, skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A List of dermatologists, ...

. 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 to become a US$7 billion company. Roivant's technology portfolio also includes Lokavant, which integrates

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

data to identify and mitigate risks in pharmaceutical development. In 2017, Roivant partnered with the private equity arm of Chinese

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

CITIC Group CITIC Group Corporation Ltd., formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation (CITIC), is a state-owned investment company of the People's Republic of China, established by Rong Yiren in 1979 with the approval of Deng Xiaoping. ...

to form Sinovant. As of 2019, Roivant had over 40 investigational drugs in development in 14 therapeutic areas across its family of companies. At the end of 2019, Roivant formed a $3 billion partnership with

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company. The company is focused on oncology, psychiatry, neurology, women's health issues, urological diseases among other areas. Its headquarters are located in Chuo-ku, Osaka. History The original ...

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. The deal included the option for Sumitomo to acquire up to six additional subsidiaries. In April 2020, Roivant dosed the first patient in a clinical study evaluating gimsilumab in

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

patients for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). 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. In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO. Matt Gline, previously the company's

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

, became CEO. In February 2021, Roivant acquired Silicon Therapeutics, a small-molecule drug designer and computational physics platform, for $450 million in Roivant equity. In October 2021, Roivant merged with

special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. to become listed on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. In June 2022, Roivant and Pfizer unveiled Priovant Therapeutics. Priovant was established in September 2021 through a transaction between Roivant and Pfizer, 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 Non-receptor tyrosine-protein kinase TYK2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''TYK2'' gene. TYK2 was the first member of the Janus kinase, JAK family that was described (the other members are Janus kinase 1, JAK1, Janus kinase 2, JAK2, ...

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 their third partnership to create a new Vant focused on developing TL1A drug candidates for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. As of February 2023, Roivant's reported market cap was over $6 billion. Axovant, owned by Roivant's Sio Gene Therapies, which failed testing in the end, has been accused of being a

pump-and-dump Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump). O ...

scheme. In December 2023,

Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational corporation, multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, ...

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.

Subsidiaries and former subsidiaries

As of April 2020, the company's subsidiaries include: *Affivant *Covant *Datavant *Genevant, created to work on RNA-based therapeutics *Hemovant *Immunovant, launched in July 2018 to develop therapies for

s, with lead candidate IMVT-1401 being developed for the treatment of

myasthenia gravis Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a long-term neuromuscular junction disease that leads to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness. The most commonly affected muscles are those of the eyes, face, and swallowing. It can result in double vision, ...

Graves' ophthalmopathy Graves' ophthalmopathy, also known as thyroid eye disease (TED), is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder of the orbit and periorbital tissues, characterized by upper eyelid retraction, lid lag, swelling (medical), swelling, redness (erythema), conj ...

and

warm antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia Warm antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia (WAIHA) is the most common form of autoimmune haemolytic anemia. About half of the cases are of unknown cause, with the other half attributable to a predisposing condition or medications being taken. Contra ...

*Kinevant, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing new medicines for rare autoimmune and inflammatory diseases *Lokavant, which is focused on improving clinical trial monitoring *Priovant *Psivant The following subsidiaries were previously a part of Roivant, but were included as part of a strategic transaction with

which closed in December 2019: *Altavant Sciences, which is developing a treatment for

pulmonary arterial hypertension Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a syndrome in which the blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary arterioles (the blood vessels located proximal to the capillary bed, the site of oxygen exchange in the lungs) is elevated. T ...

*Dermavant, focused on developing therapeutics in medical dermatology, with lead candidate

tapinarof Tapinarof, also known as benvitimod and sold under the brand name Vtama among others, is a medication used for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. The medication is applied to the skin. Besides its use in medicine, tapinarof is a naturally occ ...

in development for the treatment of

psoriasis Psoriasis is a long-lasting, noncontagious autoimmune disease characterized by patches of abnormal skin. These areas are red, pink, or purple, dry, itchy, and scaly. Psoriasis varies in severity from small localized patches to complete b ...

and

atopic dermatitis Atopic dermatitis (AD), also known as atopic eczema, is a long-term type of inflammation of the skin. Atopic dermatitis is also often called simply eczema but the same term is also used to refer to dermatitis, the larger group of skin conditi ...

Organon & Co. agreed to acquire Dermavant in a deal worth up to $1.2 billion, including a $175 million upfront payment. *Enzyvant Therapeutics, which is focused on developing therapies for rare enzyme deficiencies *Myovant Sciences, founded in partnership with

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company The is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company. It is the third largest pharmaceutical company in Asia, behind Sinopharm and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, and one of the top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world by revenue (t ...

to develop medicines for

women's health Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". Often treated ...

and

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

*Spirovant, which focused on developing gene therapies for

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

. *Urovant, which is developing lead candidate

vibegron Vibegron, sold under the brand name Gemtesa, is a medication for the treatment of overactive bladder. Vibegron is a selective beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist. The most common side effects include headache, urinary tract infection, common ...

, licensed from Merck & Co. Roivant is a major shareholder of Datavant, which was co-founded with

Travis May Travis May (born 1987) is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Shaper Capital, founder and former CEO of Datavant and previously co-founded and was the CEO of LiveRamp. Early life May was born in Cary, North Carolina, in 1987. He grew u ...

to link disparate healthcare datasets. In October 2020, Datavant announced it raised funds from Roivant alongside Transformation Capital,

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

, and

Cigna The Cigna Group is an American multinational for-profit managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and r ...

. In June 2018, Roivant laid off 67 employees and reassigned 130 to subsidiaries. In March 2020, Roivant announced it is developing gimsilumab, an anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (anti-GM-CSF)

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodie ...

to prevent and treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with

. In April 2020, Roivant started the administration of gimsilumab to

patients in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Funding

The company received millions of dollars from

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

s such as QVT in the early days of its existence. Later, it was able to raise US$200 million, with help from NovaQuest Capital Management.

Notes

References

External links

* {{authority control Companies listed on the Nasdaq Pharmaceutical companies established in 2014 Life sciences industry Multinational companies Special-purpose acquisition companies