Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio)’s Viking Global Investors said Wednesday it had invested in one of biotech’s hottest companies and in the process two of the companies it is involved in.
Roivant Sciences, a company dedicated to promoting forgotten or waylaid drugs, disclosed Halvorsen’s financial backing in an announcement that MIT Professor Andrew Lo, Ph.D., would join the board as an independent director. “The appointment follows the closing of Roivant’s financing led by Viking Global Investors,” the release said.
Roivant is a private company founded by former hedge fund manager Vivek Ramaswamy. Last year, he led the biggest biotech IPO in U.S. history at the age of 29, raising $360 million launching Roivant’s first creation, Axovant (AXON, Financial). The new company had acquired and started to develop a nearly abandoned Alzheimer’s drug from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, Financial).
Ramaswamy’s goal is to gather a pipeline of drugs through partnerships with other medical institutions and develop them faster and cheaper than other companies. Roivant’s pipeline contains drugs in various stages of development.
In addition to Axovant, Ramaswamy has been founding many other companies. Most recently, he also paired with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO:4502, Financial) in June to launch Myovant, a biopharma focused on therapies for uterine fibroids, endometriosis and prostate cancer. A month later, he partnered with Plexcerta Therapeutics to form Enzyvant Sciences to develop treatments for Farber disease.
Halvorsen, a Norwegian citizen whose massive hedge fund manages $30 billion in capital, began backing Roivant in December though he has not disclosed the amount he has invested. According to SEC filings, the appointment of Andrew Lo on July 8 gave Viking the right to override certain board decisions if it voted unanimously with two other major shareholders. Because of its right to influence decisions about Roivant’s direct ownership of shares in its other companies, Viking reported the shares to the SEC.
“The filing of this statement shall not be deemed an admission that the Reporting Persons are, for the purposes of Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the beneficial owners of any securities covered by this statement,” the filing said.
The filing referred to two stakes in particular. Roivant owns 75 million common shares of Axovant Sciences, or 75.6% of the company. Axovant’s shares have fallen 18% from their IPO price of $15 and trade around $12.38 Thursday.
Second, Roivant owns 16,013,540 shares, or 29.3%, of Arbutus Biopharma Corp. (ABUS, Financial), which is pursuing a cure for hepatitis B. Roivant acquired most of the shares on March 25, 2015.
Arbutus formed when Tekmira Pharmaceuticals merged with OnCore Biopharma in March and flipped its specialization from Ebola to hepatitis. The company has eight treatments in development as it expects a cure to result from a combination of products. Its share price declined 9% year to date and closed at $4.05 on Thursday.
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