Ramaswamy’s Bermuda-based company, Axovant Sciences, had been formed only eight months earlier, but here it was raising $360 million to develop an Alzheimer’s drug that had been all but abandoned by giant pharma GlaxoSmithKline.

1. -Changing the market
scenario in Bio-
Technology
Presented by :-
Varsha Dadheech
Mayank Yadav
Sheenam Kaushik
Roneet Kumar

2. A company that did not exist last summer had the biggest
U.S. biotech IPO ever.
Axovant Sciences sold shares at $15 a piece, raising $315
million at a $1.4 billion valuation.
Already, the stock is up 90%, giving Axovant a valuation of
about $2.8 billion.

3. WHO DID THIS
???

4. A 29-year-old former
hedge fund
manager, the
Forbes put him on
the Forbes 30
Under 30 in
Finance list.

5. Axovant Sciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of
novel therapeutics for the treatment of dementia, a condition
characterized by significant decline in mental capacity and impaired
daily function.
The lead drug candidate, RVT-101, will start
a confirmatory phase 3 clinical study in mild-to-
moderate Alzheimer’s Disease has demonstrated
statistically significant benefits in patients with
mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

6. • Applied Baccalaureate (AB) Degree
, summa cum laude, in Biology from Harvard College ,
and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.
•Director of OnCore since August 2014 ,served as a
Partner at QVT Financial LP from August 2007 to May
2014.
•Mr. Ramaswamy has been President and Chief
Executive Officer of Roivant Sciences, Inc. since May
2014.
•Mr. Ramaswamy has been Chief Executive Officer of
Axovant Sciences Ltd. since March 2015.

8. No, because...
 the iShares Nasdaq
Biotechnology Index has
surged 300% in five
years, compared with a
100% gain for the
broader Nasdaq index
and 70% for the S&P
500.

9. On the first day of trading the stock
almost doubled, giving Axovant a
market capitalization of nearly $3
billion.
Ramaswamy had persuaded Glaxo to
part with the unproven remedy for a
mere $5 million up front.

10.  The party ended when critics, experts and
analysts’ collective blogosphere piled on.
They asked, Why would Glaxo sell off a
promising drug for so little? And how
could a company with ten employees, two
of whom were Ramaswamy’s mother and
brother, be worth so much?
 As a result, Axovant’s shares went into
free fall. By early September they were
trading 12% below the IPO price.

11.  He is rescuing the pharmaceutical industry’s
forgotten drugs.
 according to Ramaswamy, the IPO, according to
Ramaswamy, is just “a first step on a broader
mission” to liberate abandoned or deprioritized
drugs that routinely languish in the pipelines of
pharma companies, never reaching patients or
enriching investors.
 “So many drugs that would have been of use to
society are cast aside. Certain drugs have gone
by the wayside for reasons that have nothing to
do with their underlying merits.”,says
ramaswamy.

12. Using a pharmaceutical holding
company he formed last year,
Roivant Sciences, Ramaswamy hopes
to spin out dozens of companies,
much as he did with Axovant.
“This will be the highest return on
investment endeavor ever taken up
in the pharmaceutical industry,” he
boasts.

13.  Ramaswamy has quickly established a
track record: Roivant Sciences’ 76% stake
in Axovant and its Alzheimer’s pill, code-
named RVT-101, has produced a 20,000%
paper return on its initial $5 million
investment.
 Before that Ramaswamy turned an $8
million purchase of several drugs to treat
the liver virus hepatitis B into a $110
million stake in Arbutus BioPharma, a
1,275% paper return.

14.  In May, Roivant
scooped up a
drug for
psychosis for $4
million from
Arena
Pharmaceuticals.
It also recently
partnered with
Duke University
group with a
track record for
inventing rare-
disease drugs.

15.  A whirlwind of such deals has made
Ramaswamy, a member of the
FORBES 30 Under 30 list,
biopharma’s youngest chief
executive. He may soon be its
youngest billionaire.
 FORBES estimates that Roivant is
worth $3.5 billion, making its
Millennial founder’s 20% or so stake
worth some $700 million.

16. With this instant
success Ramaswamy
was poised to think
bigger.

17.  Everyone knows that Alzheimer’s disease is a
scourge–it’s forecast to afflict 13.8 million
Americans and cost the U.S. economy $1
trillion annually by 2050.
 But it’s also a pharma death trap.
 Between 2002 to 2012 researchers tested 244
Alzheimer’s drugs, and only one made it to
market–a 99.6% failure rate.

18.  Ramaswamy’s research chief, Friedhoff, had
led the development of Aricept, the
bestselling Alzheimer’s drug ever, with $4
billion in peak sales.

19.  In 2010 Glaxo had announced that it was
mostly going to exit the field, and any
lingering interest in Alzheimer’s drugs would
focus on reversing the disease instead of
relieving symptoms.

20. But when Ramaswamy looked at the data for
the drug, he saw a winner.
 It had failed the first three clinical trials that tested the drug
alone.
 But Ramaswamy and many experts believe animal data that show
RVT-101 will work far better when paired with an older drug like
Aricept.
 A fourth study offered evidence of that, but the trial failed
because Glaxo picked the wrong endpoint.

21.  In the fourth study RVT-101 reversed
Alzheimer’s patients’ symptoms to where
they had been more than six months before,
but then the disease’s merciless progression
continued.

22.  More comfort: Another drug being developed
by the Danish drug firm Lundbeck targets the
same brain receptor as RVT-101 and shows
similar results. Friedhoff, Roivant’s renowned
Alzheimer’s expert, was convinced.

23. Now the only problem was getting the drug out
of Glaxo.
 Eventually, Ramaswamy got the terms he wanted: just $5
million up front but also $160 million in milestones and a
12.5% royalty on sales.
 Basically, he gives big companies a chance to win big–if
RVT-101 ever becomes a $1 billion seller, the royalties
would boost Glaxo’s earnings by 2%, which is an enticing
proposition for something that carries enormous sunk costs
and zero prospects otherwise.

24.  With the drug in hand, Ramaswamy decided
to spin out Axovant–the company built
around RVT-101 as its only asset–hitting up
his old hedge fund peers.

25.  Kolchinsky’s condition: He wanted a big
position. He bought $75 million worth, his
fund’s largest holding, at the IPO price.
 So did hedge fund Visium Asset Management.
Mutual fund managers like Capital Growth
and Janus also bought in.

27.  A decade ago raising $100 million in a
biotech offering was nearly unheard of.
 Today it’s commonplace and not just in
public markets.
 In January venture capitalists put $450
million into Moderna Therapeutics, a
company with fascinating science but no
drugs in testing, and a few months later they
gave $217 million to Denali Therapeutics,
another company focused on Alzheimer’s as
well as Parkinson’s.

28.  Amid this rush of money Ramaswamy’s big
Alzheimer’s IPO spooked investors. After all,
for Ramaswamy’s team Axovant is a no-lose
investment, given the minuscule price it paid
Glaxo for RVT-101.

29.  Spin is an important part of Ramaswamy’s
game plan, and his youthful enthusiasm and
hubris haven’t gone unnoticed.
 But however the drugs perform, there’s real
financial innovation here, with potential to
save and improve countless lives, whether
through him or others who emulate the
model.
 And that’s something a biotech bubble,
whenever it bursts, can’t wash away.