Vivek Ramaswamy's Parallels With Warren Buffett Run Deeper Than Wanting To Make Roivant The 'Berkshire Hathaway Of Drug Development'

Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is making all the right noises and has appealed to people with his rank-outsider status and eloquence. A report delved into the similarities the presidential hopeful shares with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Investment Theme: Ramaswamy and Buffett differ in being on either side of the political spectrum. The “Oracle of Omaha” has previously advised former President Barack Obama and then went on to support Hillary Clinton when she ran for office in 2015. However, he has in the past few years disassociated himself from politics. His recent apolitical stance stems from the worry concerning the potential impact his statements or views may have on his employees and shareholders.

Both Ramaswamy and Buffett apparently have common grounds. They are interested in bargain buys and worry about the intersection of business and social issues, Business Insider said in a report.

Buffett is known for his “value investing” strategy of buying good companies at the right prices and holding them for long. This buy-and-hold strategy has served him well, as seen in the rise in the shares of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment-holding company he runs in the capacity of both chairman and CEO. His key equity portfolio investments such as Apple, American Express, and Coca-Cola have done well by way of capital appreciation, while also fetching him dividend income.

Ramaswamy, the founder of Roivant Sciences Ltd. ROIV, a biopharma portfolio company, once aspired to make it the “Berkshire Hathaway” of drug development, the report said, citing Forbes.

Roivant bought an Alzheimer's candidate from GlaxoSmithKline GSK for $5 million in 2015 and then shelved the drug after it flopped in clinical trials.

The company began adding portfolio companies and in 2019, it agreed to sell five of its subsidiaries to Japan’s Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma for $3 billion. The Japanese company also took a 10% stake in Roivant.

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Corporate Social Agenda: Buffett, though not anti-climate, is not in favor of “social governance warriors seeking to hijack corporate mission,” a New York Times report said. “To Mr. Buffett, boards' rightful role is, as ever, to serve the shareholders who have risked their capital,” it added.

This starkly contrasts the stances of several so-called progressive institutional investors, which have pushed for environmental, social, and governance investing. Additionally, companies have adopted climate and diversity policies.

Ramaswamy, a self-proclaimed “anti-woke crusader” has been critical of companies and investment managers not performing their fiduciary duties by pursuing social agendas.

In a 2022 post on the Harvard Law School Forum, Ramaswamy said, “Under the sole interest rule, asset managers cannot be influenced by their own interests, by the interests of third-party ‘stakeholders,' by ‘social' objectives, or by any motives other than what's best for their clients. 

He also cried foul over BlackRock calling for U.S. oil companies to reduce oil production to fight climate change but being a shareholder in foreign oil companies such as PetroChina. The firm also drew flake recently for naming  Saudi Aramco Chairman and CEO Amin Nasser to its board.

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