Roivant is a healthcare company focused on applying technology to drug development and building subsidiary biotech and healthcare technology companies, founded by Vivek Ramaswamy.
History
Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant in 2015. 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 focused on autoimmune diseases, to privately held Dermavant Sciences, a commercial-stage company focused on medical dermatology.
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 $7 billion company. Roivant's technology portfolio also includes Lokavant, which integrates clinical trial data to identify and mitigate risks in pharmaceutical development. In 2017, Roivant partnered with the private equity arm of Chinese state-owned CITIC Group to form Sinovant. As of 2019, Roivant had over forty investigational drugs in development in fourteen therapeutic areas across its family of companies.
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. 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 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, 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 Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. to become listed on the Nasdaq.
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 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 scheme.
Subsidiaries and former subsidiaries
As of April 2020, the company's subsidiaries include: Affivant Covant Datavant Dermavant, focused on developing therapeutics in medical dermatology, with lead candidate tapinarof in development for the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Genevant, created to work on RNA-based therapeutics. Hemovant 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 antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia. 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 Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma which closed in December 2019: