Vivek Accomplishment.
QUOTE
In 2015, Ramaswamy raised $360 million for the Roivant subsidiary
Axovant Sciences in an attempt to market
intepirdine as a drug for
Alzheimer's disease.
[27][30] In December 2014,
[31] Axovant purchased the patent for intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline (where the drug had failed four previous clinical trials) for $5 million, a small sum in the industry.
[28] Ramaswamy appeared on the cover of
Forbes magazine in 2015, and said his company would "be the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry."
[28][30] Before new clinical trials began, he engineered an initial public offering in Axovant.[28] Axovant became a "Wall Street darling" and raised $315 million in its IPO.[31] The company's market value initially soared to almost $3 billion, although at the time it only had eight employees, including Ramaswamy's brother and mother.[28] Ramaswamy took a massive payout after selling a portion of his shares in Roivant to Viking Global Investors.[28] He claimed more than $37 million in capital gains in tax year 2015.[28] Ramaswamy said his company would be the "Berkshire Hathaway of drug development"[3] and touted the drug as a "tremendous" opportunity that "could help millions" of patients, prompting some criticism that he was overpromising.[28]
In September 2017, the company announced that intepirdine had failed in its large clinical trial.[28][32] The company's value plunged; it lost 75% in one day and continued to decline afterward.
[28] Shareholders who lost money included various
institutional investors,
as well as the California State Teachers' Retirement System pension fund.[28] Ramaswamy was insulated from much of Axovant's losses because he held his stake through Roivant.
[28][31] The company abandoned intepirdine. Ramaswamy said in 2018 had no regrets about how the company handled the drug;
[31] in subsequent years, he said that he regretted the outcome but was annoyed by criticism of the company.
[28] Axovant attempted to reinvent itself as a
gene therapy company,
[33] but dissolved in 2023.
[28]
END Quote