Roivant Sciences to Develop AstraZeneca’s Deprioritized Compound
“We are delighted to welcome AstraZeneca to our expanding circle of pharmaceutical partners,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, Founder, and CEO of Roivant Sciences. “I admire AstraZeneca’s commitment to ensuring that innovative medicines reach patients, and I hope this is the first of many future collaborations“.
Basel-based pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences has entered into a development partnership with AstraZeneca for a deprioritized investigational drug in an undisclosed indication.
The deal seems consistent with Ramaswamy’s business model—acquires cast-off compounds from big pharmaceutical companies at bargain-bin prices and convinces investors to invest in developing them.
The drug will be developed by Roivant in a new therapeutic area that is outside of AstraZeneca’s main therapy areas. Roivant has licensed global rights for its development and commercialization; deal terms include an upfront payment, development milestones, and royalties. This is the first partnership between Roivant and Astra
Zeneca.Roivant is dedicated to transformative innovation in healthcare. Roivant focuses on realizing the full potential of promising biomedical research by developing and commercializing novel therapies across diverse therapeutic areas. Roivant partners with innovative biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions to ensure that important medicines are rapidly developed and delivered to patients.
The biotech has a number of subsidiaries, each of which is active in specialized areas. These include Urovant, which works in the field of urology, and the newly founded Datavant, which aims to improve drug development by analyzing large amounts of data.
“This deal is another example of how AstraZeneca collaborates with industry in an open manner to expedite the delivery of novel medicines to patients,” said Kumar Srinivasan, Vice President of Scientific Partnering and Alliances with AstraZeneca’s Innovative Medicines and Early Development (IMED) Biotech unit.