Dr. Frank Torti, former partner at NEA, appointed Vant Investment Chair
- Dr. Frank Torti, former partner at NEA, appointed Vant Investment Chair
- Rakhi Kumar promoted to Chief Accounting Officer
- NovaQuest makes $100 million strategic investment in Dermavant to advance development of tapinarof
- 30 rotational analysts in 2018 class selected from over 3,000 applicants across top universities
BASEL, Switzerland and NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Roivant Sciences today announced that Frank Torti, MD, has joined the company as Vant Investment Chair for Roivant Pharma. In this role, he is expected to be responsible for the oversight of biopharmaceutical companies in the Roivant family and to serve as one of two Roivant-appointed representatives on company boards. Dr. Torti joins Myrtle Potter, the recently-appointed Vant Operating Chair for Roivant Pharma.
“I believe that Roivant has the most compelling business model in the biopharmaceutical industry today and I look forward to playing an important role in helping to dramatically scale the company in the future,” said Dr. Torti.
“We are pleased to welcome Frank to serve in this critical role,” said Mayukh Sukhatme, MD, President of Roivant Pharma. “He will join Myrtle in providing oversight to our Pharma Vants as Roivant accelerates production of additional Vants in the near term.”
Dr. Torti joins Roivant from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading venture capital firm where he served as partner. At NEA, Dr. Torti managed early and growth-stage investments in numerous healthcare companies that were responsible for the development and commercialization of new drugs and medical devices important to clinical medicine today. Prior to joining NEA in 2007, Dr. Torti was a researcher at the Duke University Center for Clinical & Genetic Economics. Dr. Torti received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.
In addition, Roivant announced today that Rakhi Kumar has been promoted to Chief Accounting Officer. Ms. Kumar joined Roivant in September 2015 and previously served as Vice President for External Reporting and Finance. Prior to joining Roivant, she was responsible for external reporting and technical accounting at The Medicines Company and served in additional corporate accounting roles including at Ernst & Young from 2004 to 2011. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and received her M.S. in Accounting and Taxation from the University of Hartford.
Roivant also announced that NovaQuest Capital Management has made a $100 million strategic investment in Dermavant in exchange for conditional milestone payments achieved by tapinarof, a Phase 3-ready investigational therapeutic aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulating agent (TAMA) for the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
“For two decades, NovaQuest has been providing novel solutions to the biopharmaceutical industry to fund the development and commercialization of truly innovative and potentially groundbreaking therapies for patients,” said NovaQuest partner Matthew Bullard. “We believe that tapinarof has the potential to address significant medical needs in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis and we are excited to participate in this exciting program.”
Roivant also welcomed its 2018 class of rotational analysts. The company’s rotational analyst program provides top university graduates with an opportunity to contribute as fulltime employees to the development of innovative medicines. Analysts rotate between multiple departments at Roivant and subsidiary Vants over the course of a two-year program, after which they are deployed to long-term roles across the Vant family. Roivant received over 3,000 applications for its 2018 class and selected a cohort of 30 analysts.
“As part of Roivant’s commitment to developing the next generation of leaders in the life sciences, we have built on our past success with campus recruiting and are pleased to welcome an outstanding class of recent graduates to our team,” said Danielle Greenberg, who leads the rotational analyst program at Roivant.
Five of this year’s analysts come to Roivant from Harvard University, three each from Stanford University and Duke University, two each from MIT, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and UC Berkeley, and one each from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, the London School of Economics, Hannover Medical School, and the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University.
Applications for next year’s rotational analyst class are now open. For more information, please email campusrecruiting@roivant.com.
About Roivant
Roivant is focused on rapidly developing innovative medicines through a novel form of industrial organization. We build Vants - nimble, entrepreneurial biotech companies with a unique approach to sourcing talent, aligning economic incentives, and deploying technology to drive greater efficiency in R&D and commercialization. The goal of our model is to ensure that important medicines rapidly reach patients who suffer from serious diseases.
The Roivant family of companies today includes Myovant (women’s health), Axovant (neurology), Urovant (urology), Enzyvant (rare diseases), Dermavant (dermatology), Genevant (RNA therapeutics), Metavant (cardiometabolic diseases), Immunovant (immunology), Altavant (next-generation drug development), Datavant (healthcare data), Arbutus (hepatitis B), and Sinovant (drug development in China). There are over 30 investigational drugs in 12 therapeutic areas being tested across the Roivant family of companies.
For more information, please visit www.roivant.com.
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SOURCE Roivant Sciences
