Vision Fund, the investment fund launched by telecommunications firm SoftBank, led a $1.1bn round for Switzerland-based drug developer Roivant Sciences today that also featured existing investors including pharmaceuticals distributor Dexxon.
Founded in 2014, Roivant pursues a business model whereby it develops therapeutics through a range of subsidiaries.
The subsidiaries in question include Myovant, which focuses on endocrine diseases and women’s health in general, Axovant (neurology), Dermavant (dermatology), Enzyvant (rare diseases) and Urovant (urology).
The funding will be used to launch additional subsidiaries, the first of which, Datavant, will be the first not to focus on biopharmaceuticals. Datavant will instead aim to fuse information from previously separated healthcare datasets in order to more expansively assess people’s health.
Akshay Naheta, managing director of SoftBank Group, said: “Roivant has attracted world-class talent in its pursuit of developing and commercialising drugs that target large unmet medical needs.
“We are impressed with the ambition and track record of the Roivant team and look forward to supporting them in the next step of their journey, as they look to effectively harness technology and leverage big data across all aspects of their business.”
Myovant went public in a $218m initial public offering in October 2016, four months after it was spun out, with pharmaceutical company Pfizer and investment firm BB Biotech each investing $30m through the offering. Axovant had raised $315m in its own IPO the year before.