Roivant Appoints Chief Development Officer and Announces Multiple Collaborations in Targeted Protein Degradation

Rhea-AI Summary

Roivant Sciences has appointed Dr. Srini Ramanathan as Chief Development Officer, bringing over 20 years of drug development experience from Horizon Therapeutics. Dr. Ramanathan has a proven track record in advancing clinical portfolios and has contributed to multiple drug approvals in virology and oncology. Roivant's subsidiaries, Proteovant Therapeutics and VantAI, have also established collaborations with Blueprint Medicines, Janssen, and Boehringer Ingelheim, focusing on innovative drug development with potential aggregate milestone payments exceeding $1 billion.

Positive

• Dr. Ramanathan's extensive experience in drug development may enhance Roivant's R&D capabilities.
• Strategic partnerships with leading firms indicate strong innovation potential in protein degradation.

Negative

• None.

• Dr. Srini Ramanathan has over 20 years of experience in drug development and joins Roivant from Horizon Therapeutics where he built scientific R&D capabilities and teams to advance the company’s preclinical and clinical portfolio
• In addition to internal pipeline programs, Roivant companies Proteovant Therapeutics and VantAI have formed external drug development partnerships with leading companies to further innovate in protein degradation
• Collaborations with Blueprint Medicines, Janssen, and Boehringer Ingelheim include aggregate contingent milestone payments of over $1 billion as well as product royalties
  

BASEL, Switzerland and LONDON and NEW YORK and BOSTON, May 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Roivant Sciences (Nasdaq: ROIV) today announced that Srini Ramanathan, Ph.D. will be joining the company as Chief Development Officer. Dr. Ramanathan has over 20 years of drug development expertise across a wide range of diseases. He joins Roivant from Horizon Therapeutics where he served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development Sciences and Site Head of the South San Francisco office. At Horizon, Dr. Ramanathan was responsible for building various scientific functions in discovery and development supporting pipeline expansion, regulatory submissions, and business development activities. Earlier in his career, he served in leadership roles at AbbVie and Gilead Sciences. He has contributed to the global approval of several medicines in virology, oncology, and autoimmune disease, and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals.

“I am excited to join Roivant, one of the most innovative companies in the industry, and I look forward to supporting the advancement of novel medicines across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Ramanathan.

Roivant also announced that two of its subsidiary companies, Proteovant Therapeutics and VantAI, have entered into several recently announced research collaboration agreements focused on the discovery and development of novel protein degraders and next-generation E3 ligase platforms:

• Proteovant and Blueprint Medicines have formed a strategic collaboration that brings together Proteovant's targeted protein degrader discovery and development platform, inclusive of biology, chemistry and proteomics capabilities, and VantAI’s leading artificial intelligence technologies for degrader generation and optimization with Blueprint Medicine's precision medicine expertise to discover novel targeted protein degraders. The companies will jointly research important targets and advance up to two novel protein degrader therapies into development.
  
  
• VantAI and Janssen Pharmaceutica recently announced a multi-year collaboration in which the two firms will leverage VantAI's geometric deep learning platform to generate protein degrader drug candidates for two significant disease targets and collaborate on the discovery and implementation E3 ligase platforms relating to those targets.
  
  
• VantAI and Boehringer Ingelheim recently announced a research collaboration focused on degrading traditionally “undruggable” targets. The collaboration is initially focused on one degrader program combined with proprietary E3 ligase platforms for those specific targets. The two organizations and their scientists will leverage VantAI's geometric deep learning platform to computationally streamline the design of these new molecules optimized for E3 ligase platforms.
  

“I am delighted by the progress of our collaborations in targeted protein degradation and the work our teams are doing with these innovative partners,” said Matt Gline, CEO of Roivant. “In addition, I am excited to welcome Dr. Ramanathan to our leadership team and look forward to his contributions to our development organization.”

About Roivant
Roivant's mission is to improve the delivery of healthcare to patients by treating every inefficiency as an opportunity. Roivant develops transformative medicines faster by building technologies and developing talent in creative ways, leveraging the Roivant platform to launch 'Vants' – nimble and focused biopharmaceutical and health technology companies. For more information, please visit www.roivant.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Statements in this press release may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), which are usually identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intends," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and variations of such words or similar expressions. The words may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act.

Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the clinical and therapeutic potential of our product candidates, the availability and success of topline results from our ongoing clinical trials, any commercial potential of our product candidates and any pending or potential litigation, including but not limited to our expectations regarding the outcome of any such litigation and costs and expenses associated with such litigation. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements.

Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations and strategies as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to, those risks set forth in the Risk Factors section of our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment in which new risks emerge from time to time. These forward-looking statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of our management as of the date of this press release, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts
Investors
Roivant Investor Relations
ir@roivant.com 

Media
Paul Davis
Roivant Sciences
paul.davis@roivant.com 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7de81dab-8b73-4d2c-b28d-dfbde5541e4e

FAQ

What is the significance of Dr. Srini Ramanathan's appointment at Roivant Sciences?

Dr. Ramanathan's appointment is significant due to his 20+ years of experience in drug development, expected to strengthen Roivant's R&D efforts.

What collaborations has Roivant Sciences entered into recently?

Roivant's subsidiaries have entered collaborations with Blueprint Medicines, Janssen, and Boehringer Ingelheim, focusing on protein degradation innovations.

How much in contingent milestone payments are involved in Roivant's collaborations?

Roivant's collaborations include potential aggregate contingent milestone payments exceeding $1 billion.

What is Dr. Ramanathan's background before joining Roivant?

Before Roivant, Dr. Ramanathan served at Horizon Therapeutics, leading R&D and contributing to drug approvals at AbbVie and Gilead Sciences.