“China is an unavoidable link in the pharmaceutical supply chain system,” Achal Prabhala, a fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation in Bangalore and an activist for access to medicines, told me by email. “Forty percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients consumed worldwide originate there, and some countries are more trusted than others (in India, for example, that figure is 70%). The idea of ​​running a pharmaceutical business without Chinese involvement is somehow ridiculous.”

Late last month, Ramaswamy’s asset management firm Strive, where he also recently stepped down as chief executive to run for the job, launched a publicly traded background (ETF) made up of emerging market companies excluding Chinese companies. “Since day 1, Strive has made a commitment not to do business in China because we cannot be good fiduciaries for US and Chinese customers,” said a fact sheet on the background states.

Since stepping down as CEO of Roivant, Ramaswamy has promoted his book woke up inc and becoming an outspoken critic of (among many other things) so-called “environmental, social and governance” investment principles, or ESG. Hello fiance to “end federally mandated affirmative action” on Day 1 of a hypothetical presidency. He pledged in his campaign to take on what he calls “secular religions” like “climatism,” “gender ideology” and “covidism,” which he definite as a “stop it at all costs” mentality against the pandemic. This last commitment is ironic, since, in 2020, Roivant gave patients undergoing experimental treatment with monoclonal antibodies for Covid-19.