Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Roivant Sciences to form strategic alliance

TOKYO: Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic alliance with Roivant Sciences Ltd.
Roivant is expected to receive a total of US$3 billion (approx. ¥320 billion) from Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, subject to final agreement between the parties.
The Memorandum of Understanding is generally non-binding with the exception of exclusivity and confidentiality. Both parties will continue to conduct further due diligence and engage in discussions on terms and conditions on a legally binding definitive agreement for the strategic alliance expected to be executed by the end of October 2019.
Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is rebuilding its business foundation by pursuing core strategies laid out in the Mid-Term Business Plan 2022 which consists of the “establishment of a growth engine” and “building a flexible and efficient organization” in order to ensure sustainable growth after expiration of U.S. market exclusivity of atypical antipsychotic LATUDA®, one of the key pillar of revenue for the Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Group.
Roivant aims to deliver value with innovative medicines and digital technologies in healthcare through subsidiaries, named “Vants”. Roivant has top talented employees with extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and data science field and creates unique data-related technologies and techniques which enable them to acquire compounds or technologies from academia and pharmaceutical/biotech companies and to drive efficiency in clinical development.
Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma will aim to achieve mid- and long-term growth through this Strategic Alliance, which will not only enable Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma to acquire a rich pipeline with multiple development compounds that are expected to be launched by FY2022, including potential blockbusters, but which will also help the entire Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Group to enhance its R&D productivity and accelerate digital transformation.
Pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma will start discussions with Roivant toward the conclusion of a contract agreement which will enable the provision of services to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma from Datavant (which has a platform with deidentification and linking technology of multiple external healthcare data to facilitate their use) and Alyvant (which has a platform for increasing efficiency of sales and marketing activities for pharmaceutical products through big data analytics), both of which are healthcare technology Vants that remain Roivant subsidiaries.
This contract agreement is expected to enable Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma to maximize the value of its product portfolio, including new products from this Strategic Alliance.
Sumitovant Biopharma will acquire Urovant Sciences for $584 million