How Vivek Ramaswamy (Actually) Became a Billionaire
Dark Secrets Behind Vivek Ramaswamy's Biotech Empire. The twisted path of success, manipulation, and high-stakes investments.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a story of the American dream, child to poor working class immigrants, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps to reach the highest levels of the business world or at least that's what he wants you to believe. His path to becoming a billionaire is a blend of success and controversy. The recent star upcomer for the right has more skeletons in his closet than he cares to admit. He claims to be a successful entrepreneur who creates jobs and stimulates the economy, this is only part of the story.
In 2014 after working at a hedge fund he founded a biotech company called Roivant Sciences. He raised $100 million dollars from some of the largest institutions in the world (including Visium Asset Management, a hedge fund that has been closed down due to fraud and insider trading). A year later he raised another $350 million dollars from Axovant (now Sio Gene Therapies), a subsidiary of Roivant Sciences, another biotech company he started and took public in 2015.
His string of biotech companies and hedge funds are confusing and intertwined. That is deliberate. A series of corporations in Bermuda, Switzerland, and the United States make keeping track of everything difficult. They swap hundreds of millions of dollars between each other like a friend venmoing another for dinner.
Axovant (Sio Gene Therapies) acquired the patent for intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline for a mere $5 million. Interpirdine had failed four clinical trials and was deemed essentially worthless by GlaxoSmithKline which is why they sold next to nothing. To turn one of those failed trials into a success he put his mother Dr. Geetha Ramaswamy on the research team. She was the VP, Medical & Scientific Strategy for Axovant Sciences from 2015 - Oct 2017 and Medical Communications Roivant Sciences Oct 2017 - Currently.
With the help of his mother they manipulated the trail and it was then seen as a successful drug that would help treat Alzheimers. Axovant (Sio Gene Therapies) went public for $315 million dollars on anticipation of this drug’s success. The Ramaswamy’s, his hedge fund friends, and the insiders all dumped their shares at its high and made hundreds of millions. Retail investors and funds like the California State Teachers' Retirement System bought the stock at an inflated artificial price. After another clinical trial showed that it was useless the stock plummeted 99% and has since shutdown.
SoftBank invested 1.1 billion in Roivant to help the development of a variety of drugs. In 2020, Japanese pharma giant Sumitomo Dainippon paid $3 billion to acquire five drugs, and took a 10% stake in Roivant. The drugs which they bought look to have legitimate uses and were a massive success for the company.
Like most things in politics the truth is somewhere in the middle. He has had legitimate success in developing drugs but not without getting his hands covered in filth in the start. You cannot look at his track record and call him a fake business man. Vivek became a billionaire through a series of legitimate and gray area tactics in the pharma space.
“I’m the only one on stage that is not bought and paid for” Vivek Claimed during the initial Republican debate. His hundreds of millions from D.E Shaw, SoftBank, and various other institutions beg to differ.
He is another example of a populist framing himself as a man of the people when in reality he is just another man in a suit as corrupt as everyone else on wall street and in Washington.
