The Schedule - Day 249
9/6/2023
Vivek Ramaswamy. "Our enemies are cozier than ever with each other," Harris Faulkner 9/6/2023.
"We didn't have the courage to shoot down that Chinese spy balloon flying over half the United States," Vivek Ramaswamy.
Some wonder if Vivek himself is a sort of spy balloon that has infiltrated the inner circles of the GOP. There is nothing to suggest based on his resume that he is should be a Republican candidate. The perception is now completely controlled by the tech industry. How did Vivek land a spot on the GOP debate stage?
Vivek has compiled a list of popular political talking points that appear as a mixed deck crossing party lines resulting in very confusing messaging from his 'platform.'
He has experience shilling for bogus products including himself. From his Wikipedia page:
Roivant Sciences and subsidiaries
Ramaswamy in 2017
In 2014, Ramaswamy founded the biotechnology firm Roivant Sciences; the "Roi" in the company's name refers to return on investment.[35] The company was incorporated in Bermuda, a tax haven, and received almost $100 million in start-up capital from QVT and other investors,[35] including RA Capital Management, Visium Asset Management, and the hedge fund managers D. E. Shaw & Co. and Falcon Edge Capital.[32] Roivant's strategy was to purchase patents from larger pharmaceutical companies for drugs that had not yet been successfully developed, and then bring them to the market.[35] The company created numerous subsidiaries,[37][40] including Dermavant (focused on dermatology), Urovant (focused on urological disease), and China-based Sinovant and Cytovant, focused on the Asian market.[37][41]
In 2015, Ramaswamy raised $360 million for the Roivant subsidiary Axovant Sciences in an attempt to market intepirdine as a drug for Alzheimer's disease.[34][42] In December 2014,[43] Axovant purchased the patent for intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline (where the drug had failed four previous clinical trials) for $5 million, a small sum in the industry.[35] Ramaswamy appeared on the cover of Forbes in 2015, and said his company would "be the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry."[35][42] Before new clinical trials began, he engineered an initial public offering (IPO) in Axovant.[35] Axovant became a "Wall Street darling" and raised $315 million in its IPO.[43] The company's market value initially soared to almost $3 billion, although at the time it only had eight employees, including Ramaswamy's brother and mother.[35] Ramaswamy took a massive payout after selling a portion of his shares in Roivant to Viking Global Investors.[35] He claimed more than $37 million in capital gains in 2015.[35] Ramaswamy said his company would be the "Berkshire Hathaway of drug development"[5] and touted the drug as a "tremendous" opportunity that "could help millions" of patients, prompting some criticism that he was overpromising.[35]
In September 2017, the company announced that intepirdine had failed in its large clinical trial.[35][44] The company's value plunged; it lost 75% in one day and continued to decline afterward.[35] Shareholders who lost money included various institutional investors, such as the California State Teachers' Retirement System pension fund.[35] Ramaswamy was insulated from much of Axovant's losses because he held his stake through Roivant.[35][43] The company abandoned intepirdine. In 2018, Ramaswamy said he had no regrets about how the company handled the drug;[43] in subsequent years, he said he regretted the outcome but was annoyed by criticism of the company.[35] Axovant attempted to reinvent itself as a gene therapy company,[45] but dissolved in 2023.[35]
In 2017, Ramaswamy struck a deal with Masayoshi Son in which SoftBank invested $1.1 billion in Roivant.[35] In 2019, Roivant sold its stake in five subsidiaries (or "vants"), including Enzyvant, to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma;[35][46] Ramaswamy made $175 million in capital gains from the sale.[35] The deal also gave Sumitomo Dainippon a 10% stake in Roivant.[46][47]
While campaigning for the presidency, Ramaswamy called himself a "scientist" and said, "I developed a number of medicines."[35] His undergraduate degree is in biology, but he was never a scientist; his role in the biotechnology industry was that of a financier and entrepreneur.[35]
In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Roivant Sciences and assumed the role of executive chairman.[46][47] In 2021, after he resigned as CEO, Roivant was listed on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition vehicle.[48] In February 2023, Ramaswamy stepped down as chair of Roivant to focus on his presidential campaign.[35][49]
Ramaswamy remains the sixth-largest shareholder of Roivant,[35] retaining a 7.17% stake.[9] Roivant has never been profitable.[48]
Roivant Social Ventures
In 2020, when Ramaswamy was CEO of Roivant Sciences, the company established a nonprofit social-impact arm, Roivant Social Ventures (RSV), with his support.[49] An earlier iteration of RSV, the Roivant Foundation, was created in 2018.[50] Although Ramaswamy's presidential campaign centers on opposing corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives, RSV worked in support of pro-DEI and ESG initiatives, including promoting health equity and diversity within the biopharma and biotech industries.[49] While campaigning, Ramaswamy has downplayed his role in creating and overseeing RSV.[49]
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Given his experience in biotech, it would be interesting to hear his opinions on Covid.
What is his stance on UBI?
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