A biotech led by a 33-year-old CEO just raised hundreds of million at a $7 billion valuation, and it plans to use the money to give old drugs new life
- Pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences just raised $200 million at a $7 billion valuation.
- The funding included participation from NovaQuest Capital Management, RTW Investments, and institutional asset managers.
- It comes a little more than a year after Roivant raised $1.1 billion in a round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund.
A company known for developing drugs that other pharmaceutical companies have abandoned has raised an additional $200 million at a $7 billion valuation.
That's up 20% from the company's previous valuation of $5.6 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The funding included participation from new investors NovaQuest Capital Management and RTW Investments, and other institutional asset managers. Roivant said in a release that the round is expected to close in December.
The funding comes a little more than a year after the monster $1.1 billion round Roivant raised in 2017 in a round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund.
Roivant, which was founded by 33-year-old CEO Vivek Ramaswamy, is a pharmaceutical company known for identifying experimental drugs other companies may have stopped developing for one reason or another that still have potential to get approved and on the market.
So far, it's launched 14 subsidiary companies and has four public companies under its wings. Those include neurodegenerative disease drug developer Axovant,women's health company Myovant, and urology company Urovant.
It's been a critical year for Roivant. Its first company, Axovant, experienced trial failures with its lead Alzheimer's disease drug. Axovant has since discontinued that drug program and pivoted to developing a gene therapy for Parkinson's disease.
One of Roivant's companies also had one of the biggest initial public offerings of the year: Urovant raised $140 million in September.
Roivant said in a release that it's expecting late-stage data from six of its clinical trials in 2019.
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