Industry Biotechnology Founder Vivek Ramaswamy Type of business Privately held company | Website www.roivant.com Founded 2014 | |
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Roivant Sciences, Ltd. is a global biopharmaceutical company that focuses on completing the development of promising late-stage drug candidates with the potential to improve the lives of patients and their families. Roivant has operations in the U.S. (Durham, N.C., and New York City), Switzerland, and Bermuda.
Contents
- Therapeutic Areas
- Axovant Sciences
- Myovant Sciences
- Enzyvant Sciences
- Dermavant Sciences
- Partnerships Community
- References
Roivant's mission is to reduce the time and cost of developing new medicines for patients and to share those savings with the healthcare system as a whole. Roivant identifies promising drug candidates that are not being developed by other biopharmaceutical companies due to financial reasons or strategic priorities and advances them through late-stage clinical development and eventual approval.
The company was founded in May 2014 by Vivek Ramaswamy. The company's leadership includes Dr. Lawrence Friedhoff, who led the development of Aricept (donepezil) and Aciphex (rabeprazole), Dr. Lynn Seeley, who led the development of Xtandi (enzalutamide), Dr. Alvin Shih, William Symonds, who led the development of Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), Dr. Mayukh Sukhatme, Matthew Gline, Marianne Romeo and Alan Roemer.
Therapeutic Areas
Roivant’s clinical development pipeline spans multiple therapeutic areas through acquisitions, strategic alliances, collaborations, and partnerships with academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Eisai Co., GlaxoSmithKline, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Duke University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Roivant is developing therapies for patients suffering from common and rare diseases through its subsidiary companies: Axovant, Myovant, Enzyvant, and Dermavant.
Axovant Sciences
The focus of Axovant is developing therapies for the treatment of dementia. The company’s lead drug candidate is intepirdine, which is being studied in combination with donepezil for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. Axovant acquired intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline in December 2014.
Axovant is also developing nelotanserin, a compound that the company acquired from Arena Pharmaceuticals. Nelotanserin is being studied in patients suffering from Lewy body dementia for the treatment of visual hallucinations and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.
Myovant Sciences
Myovant, which is dedicated to women’s health and endocrine disease treatments, is developing therapies for uterine fibroids, endometriosis, prostate cancer and female infertility. Myovant has a worldwide license for Relugolix, a once-daily, orally administered drug therapy.
Enzyvant Sciences
Enzyvant, a private subsidiary of Roivant, is working to develop therapies for rare diseases, including Farber disease.
Dermavant Sciences
Dermavant, another private subsidiary of Roivant, is developing potential treatments for atopic dermatitis.
Partnerships & Community
Axovant has partnered with NFL broadcaster Solomon Wilcots to raise awareness of Alzheimer's clinical trails in an educational campaign called "Huddle Up for New Alzheimer's Treatments." Other retired NFL players involved in that campaign include Joe Rose, Joey Harrington, Ron Pitts, Christian Fauria, Steve Tasker and Leigh Steinberg.
To increase clinical trial participation and maintain enrollment, Axovant partnered with the mobile rideshare service Lyft to transport patients in Alzheimer's disease studies to clinical facilities. Transportation to and from the clinical site has been identified as one of the major barriers to clinical study success.
African Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as white Americans, but have been historically underrepresented in clinical research studies. In order to encourage more African American participation, Axovant partnered with African American Network Against Alzheimer’s to sponsor performances in several U.S cities of “Forget Me Not,” a play by Garrett Davis about an African American family coping with Alzheimer’s disease.