Roivant Sciences

Roivant Sciences
Private
Industry Biotechnology
Founded 2014 (2014)
Founder Vivek Ramaswamy
Website www.roivant.com

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.[1][2][3] Roivant has operations in the U.S. (Durham, N.C., and New York City), Switzerland, and Bermuda.[2]

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.[3] 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.[3]

The company was founded in May 2014 by Vivek Ramaswamy.[2][3] 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.[1]

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.[1][3][4] Roivant is developing therapies for patients suffering from common and rare diseases through its subsidiary companies: Axovant, Myovant, Enzyvant, and Dermavant.[4]

Axovant Sciences

The focus of Axovant is developing therapies for the treatment of dementia.[4][5] 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.[4][5][6][7] Axovant acquired intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline in December 2014.[1][3][4]

Axovant is also developing nelotanserin, a compound that the company acquired from Arena Pharmaceuticals.[5] Nelotanserin is being studied in patients suffering from Lewy body dementia for the treatment of visual hallucinations and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.[8][9]

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.[10][11][12] Myovant has a worldwide license for Relugolix, a once-daily, orally administered drug therapy.[12][13]

Enzyvant Sciences

Enzyvant, a private subsidiary of Roivant, is working to develop therapies for rare diseases, including Farber disease.[14][15][16][17]

Dermavant Sciences

Dermavant, another private subsidiary of Roivant, is developing potential treatments for atopic dermatitis.[3]

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."[18] Other retired NFL players involved in that campaign include Joe Rose, Joey Harrington, Ron Pitts, Christian Fauria, Steve Tasker and Leigh Steinberg.[19]

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.[20] Transportation to and from the clinical site has been identified as one of the major barriers to clinical study success.[21]

African Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as white Americans,[22] but have been historically underrepresented in clinical research studies.[23][24] 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,”[25] a play by Garrett Davis about an African American family coping with Alzheimer’s disease.[18][26]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Vardi, Nathan (13 July 2016). "Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen's Hedge Fund Backs Private Biotech Roivant Sciences". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  2. 1 2 3 Vardi, Nathan (9 September 2015). "The 30-Year-Old CEO Conjuring Drug Companies From Thin Air". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Low, Geoff; Sparks, Ian (18 February 2016). "Saving Compounds From The Pharma Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Pollack, Andy (11 June 2015). "Shares of Axovant, Alzheimer's Drug Developer, Surge on Trading Debut". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Crow, David (2015-11-02). "Axovant prepares to start pair of dementia drugs trials". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  6. ↑ "Study Evaluating Intepirdine (RVT-101) in Subjects With Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease on Donepezil: MINDSET Study". clinicaltrials.gov. National Institutes of Health.
  7. ↑ "Study Evaluating Intepirdine (RVT-101) in Subjects With Dementia With Lewy Bodies: The HEADWAY-DLB Study". clinicaltrials.gov. National Institutes of Health.
  8. ↑ "Study Evaluating Nelotanserin for Treatment of Visual Hallucinations in Subjects With Lewy Body Dementia". clinicaltrials.gov. National Institutes of Health.
  9. ↑ "Study Evaluating Nelotanserin for Treatment of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder in Subjects With Dementia With Lewy Bodies". clinicaltrials.gov. National Institutes of Health.
  10. ↑ Clifford, Rebecca (7 June 2016). "Takeda forms new women's health and cancer company". PMLIVE. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  11. ↑ Taylor, Nick Paul (7 June 2016). "Axovant founder, Takeda install ex-Medivation CMO at helm of PhIII-ready startup". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  12. 1 2 Vardi, Nathan (27 October 2016). "The Woman At The Center Of The Biggest Biotech IPO Of The Year". Forbes. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  13. ↑ Leuty, Ron (27 October 2016). "Biggest biotech IPO this year is a small Peninsula company". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  14. ↑ White, Victoria. "New company Enzyvant takes aim at Farber disease". Drug Target Review. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  15. ↑ Adams, Ben. "Roivant and Plexcera launch rare disease focused spinout". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  16. ↑ Black, Andrew. "Enzyvant Sciences Created to Focus on Treatment of Farber Disease". Rare Disease Report. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  17. ↑ "New Developments in Farber Disease Research". Lysosomal Disease Network. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  18. 1 2 Henriques, Carolina (26 January 2016). "'Huddle Up for Alzheimer's' Campaign Encourages Clinical Trial Participation". Alzheimer's News Today. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  19. ↑ Leuty, Ron (9 February 2016). "On sports' biggest stage, drug developers tap athletes' connections". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  20. ↑ Rockoff, Jonathan (18 July 2016). "Companies Try New Ways to Attract Patients to Drug Trials". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  21. ↑ Grill, JD; Karlawish, J (21 December 2010). "Addressing the challenges to successful recruitment and retention in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials". Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy. 2 (6): 34. doi:10.1186/alzrt58.
  22. ↑ Potter, GG; Plassman, BL; Burke, JR; Kabeto, MU; Langa, KM; Llewellyn, DJ (1 November 2010). "Cognitive performance and informant reports in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment and dementia in African Americans and whites". Alzheimer's Dement. 5 (6): 445–453. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2009.04.1234. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  23. ↑ Corbie-Smith, G; Thomas, SB; Williams, MV; Moody-Ayers, S (September 1999). "Attitudes and beliefs of African Americans toward participation in medical research". J Gen Intern Med. 14 (9): 537–546. doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.1999.07048.x. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  24. ↑ Brown, DR; Topcu, M (February 2003). "Willingness to participate in clinical treatment research among older African Americans and Whites". Gerontologist. 43 (1): 62–72. PMID 12604747. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  25. ↑ "Forget Me Not".
  26. ↑ Kunkle, Frederick (23 November 2014). "Alzheimer's risk is higher in African Americans, but many fear clinical studies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
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