Vivek Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur and writer in the biotechnology sector. He is the founder and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. As of April 2017, he is worth an estimated $600 million.
Personal life and education
He is the eldest son in his family. His father worked at General Electric and his mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, is a geriatric psychiatrist. Ramaswamy graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 2003. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in biology. He then received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where his studies were supported by The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Ramaswamy is married to Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy, an otolaryngologist. In 2020, after four weeks of maternity leave, she returned to work as a frontline healthcare worker during the COVID-19 pandemic and was infected while treating patients. Apoorva has recovered from the coronavirus.
Career
Ramaswamy began his career as an investor in the biotechnology sector where he led successful investments in companies developing early-stage therapeutics including the eventual cure for chronic hepatitis C virus. In 2007, he co-founded and served as President of Campus Venture Network, a technology company that was acquired in 2009 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Ramaswamy worked at QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014, where he was a partner and co-managed the firm’s biotech portfolio. Ramaswamy appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2015. Ramaswamy is the founder and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. He is also the founder of Axovant Sciences, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focusing on treatments for dementia. The initial public offering for Axovant in 2015 raised $360 million. Ramaswamy served on the Board of Directors of Myovant Sciences, a subsidiary of Roivant Sciences focused on the treatment of women’s health diseases and other endocrine-related disorders. Myovant, formed in April 2016, raised $218 million in its initial public offering, the largest biotech IPO of 2016. Ramaswamy serves on the Board of Directors of Sumitovant Biopharma. Sumitovant is the result of a $3 billion transaction in 2019 which transferred ownership stakes in five companies in the Roivant family, and includes investigational medicines which generated four successful Phase 3 studies in 2019. Ramaswamy serves on the Ohio coronavirus task force. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank that conducts research on expanding economic opportunity to those who least have it.
