Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, despite being a rank outsider, has quickly risen up in favorability ratings and is now ranked third behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. An Indo-American by ethnicity, he is the son of immigrant parents and is an American businessman.
The Entrepreneur: An alumnus of the prestigious Harvard University and Yale Law School, Ramaswamy launched his first venture – Campus Venture Network, in 2007 along with Travis May. Campus Venture served as a social networking site for university students who wished to launch a business.
After working for hedge fund QVT from 2007 to 2015, where he managed the firm's biotech portfolio, he founded biopharma holding company Roivant Sciences, Inc. ROIV.
In 2019, Roivant agreed to sell five of its subsidiaries to Japan's Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma for $3 billion, with the Japanese company also taking a 10% stake in the former. The agreement also provided an option for Sumitomo Dainippon to take ownership interests in six more companies.
Ramaswamy stepped down as the CEO of the company in January 2021 and transitioned to the role of executive chairman and stayed in the position until February this year.
The presidential hopeful then co-founded Chapter Medicare in 2020 and Ohio-based asset management company Strive in early 2022. He resigned from Strive in February 2023 before announcing his presidential campaign.
He retains a 10% stake in Roivant and his net worth is now at $950 million, according to Forbes.
See Also: Best Biotech Stocks
What Roivant Sciences Does: Roivant initially in-licensed drug candidates in development and created subsidiaries in distinct therapeutic areas. Gradually, it went down the value chain and began developing earlier-stage drug candidates and platform technologies.
It went public via a SPAC deal in early October 2021.
The company is now a commercial-stage biopharma which has a commercial product in Tapinarof for treating psoriasis. Its product pipeline focuses on inflammation and immunology, with two Phase 2 assets and three Phase 3 assets.
Its subsidiaries include publicly listed Immunovant, Inc. IMVT and privately-held Dermavant, Telavant, Priovant, Genevant, Kinevant, Hemavant and Lokavant.
The recently released June quarter results show that the company's quarterly revenue was at $21.62 million. The company clocked a loss of $0.38 per share for the quarter. Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at the end of the June quarter were at roughly $1.5 billion.
For the fiscal year ending March 2023, it reported revenue of $61.28 million and a loss of $1.42 per share.
Return From Roivant Investment: A $1,000 invested in Roivant, when Ramaswamy announced his candidacy on Feb. 21, would have fetched 116.7 shares. Since then the stock has risen from $8.57 to $11.11, partly reflecting the broader market recovery.
The same amount of shares would be worth $1,296.4, a hypothetical return of roughly 30% in a six-month timeframe. This compares to the 9.5% gain clocked by the S&P 500 Index and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF's XBI nearly 6% drop.
In premarket trading on Friday, Roivant edged up 0.10% at $77.90, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Read Next: Bill Ackman Tells Vivek Ramaswamy How To Run For President
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