The 2024 presidential candidate sat down with BioSpace in an exclusive interview to outline the key points of his campaign - including his thoughts on the FDA.
Courtesy of Lisa Lake/Getty Images
Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire biotech founder and venture capitalist, landed in early-primary Iowa Thursday, announcing he is entering the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race.
Ramaswamy, a native Ohioan, is a first-generation American and the founder/former CEO of biotech Roivant Sciences.
What we need is a merit-based government, the candidate said at a campaign stop in Des Moines. He would take his lessons learned as a biotech CEO and apply them to the public sector.
Merit First
“We believe in American ‘exceptionalism,’” Ramaswamy told BioSpace in an exclusive interview prior to his event. “[The ‘Woke Left’] will tell you that your race, your gender and your sexual orientation govern who you are, what you can achieve, and what you’re allowed to think. This is psychological slavery.”
If biotechs and pharmas are to keep innovating, the most essential precursor is free speech, which he contended the country had been limited under the current and previous administrations.
“I believe in a colorblind meritocracy and I think that any science should remain uncorrupted by these social, anti-meritocratic orthodoxies. The other thing that’s a precondition for innovation is free speech and open debate,” he said.
BioSpace first reported the news of Ramaswamy’s potential presidential bid on February 13, then updated coverage Wednesday to reflect his official declaration.
The ‘Anti-Woke Movement’
In his interview and campaign launch video, Ramaswamy criticized a focus on diversity from “the woke left” and denounced policies he said left-leaning politicians have taken to address situations like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
Ramaswamy said he wants his bid to represent a movement for social change, not “just a campaign.”
Though he has filed official paperwork to establish his candidacy and political action committee (PAC), “Vivek 2024,” he has not received any contributions of more than $200 in the current reporting period, which require documentation, according to the FEC committee report.
“This isn’t just a political campaign, he said. “This is a cultural movement to create a new American Dream for the next generation. To me the American Dream means you believe in merit” and that you get ahead by the value of your contributions.
Though there is little in Ramaswamy’s early campaign rhetoric specifically addressing life sciences, he has previewed his merit-based approach to governance and warned of the direction in which he believes the country is currently headed.
Faith, patriotism and hard work have been replaced by “secular religions like covidism, climatism and gender ideology,” he said.
The FDA
Ramaswamy critiqued the “bloated” federal government in his stump speech about federal agencies as a whole. When he sat down with BioSpace, he specifically pointed at the FDA as high on his list of “unchecked agencies.”
“I expect [as president] to be very critical of the FDA. I feel like I’ve had my shackles on for a long time. People told me while I was in the industry - be careful …
“The FDA never forgets” is a saying the industry will recognize, he said. I’ve long had to wear my kid gloves with respect to FDA because I was in an industry that was regulated by them. Now, I’m out of that industry.” Ramaswamy has stepped down from the board of Roivant.
“I’m now running for president [of the government] into which that agency reports. I will be pretty unapologetically critical. I see deep-seated failures in that administration.”
Can He Win?
Ramaswamy may appeal to fellow life sciences professionals, but his bid for president at age 37 as a political outsider may seem like a long shot.
“Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t the first outsider to try and make his pitch to Iowans – and if he’s successful, he won’t be the first outsider to succeed in the Iowa Caucus, either,” Jeff Kaufmann, Chairman, Republican Party of Iowa, told BioSpace.
“Like every other potential and declared candidate in the mix, [he] is leveraging his own unique skillsets (in this case, in the life sciences) and experiences to appeal to voters. How it’ll work out in Iowa and the rest of America remains to be seen, but he’s identifying issues he cares about and is making his pitch.”
The candidate agreed.
“History teaches us that the people who were expected to win at this time, 18 months ahead of a presidential election, are rarely the ones who actually going to win.
“So don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going. You have to figure out where you think it’s going, right?”
Ramaswamy, who is launching what is likely a long shot bid for the GOP nomination, is joining a Republican field that includes former President Trump and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. A few other less prominent Republican candidates like former Cranston, R.I. Mayor Steve Laffey and former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton have also announced bids.
Ramaswamy snagged the nickname the “CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc.” in his profile in The New Yorker in December 2022, in reference to his 2021 book, “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” which criticizes a “woke-industrial complex” for “mixing morality with consumerism.”
“Listen to what I have to say,” he said. “Make your own judgment.”
