Nantbio, Inc.

June 9, 2017 By Mark Terry , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff Perhaps best known as the world’s richest doctor ,” Patrick Soon-Shiong plans to add another component to his health care empire—a Los Angeles-based cancer center. At a recent Beverly Hills event, Soon-Shiong promised to open a world-class cancer center, hopefully this summer. The center would be a standalone oncology clinic with private practitioners who treat cancer patients and conduct research. Soon-Shiong’s spokeswoman, Jen Hodson , indicated that the clinic won’t be affiliated with any of his biotech companies. It hasn’t yet been determined if the clinic will conduct clinical trials. For that matter, it hasn’t been determined if the clinic will open at all. At this point the physicians who will run the clinic have selected the building, equipment and hired medical staff. But the clinic is still pending regulatory clearance from the state of California. Although that would seem to suggest it’s all ready to go, Soon-Shiong told the Los Angeles Business Journal that he also has a backup plan if it doesn’t. He will move to his native South Africa and attempt the project there. Soon-Shiong received a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBCh) from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa when he was 23. He eventually began surgical training at University of California, Los Angeles. In 1991, he left his surgical positions to start a diabetes and cancer biotech company, which led, in 1997 to APP Pharmaceuticals . He sold the company to Fresenius SE for $4.6 billion in 2008. He later founded Abraxis BioScience and co-developed the cancer drug Abraxane. He sold the company to Celgene in 2010 for over $3 billion. His umbrella company is NantWorks . Under it are several biotech companies, including NantCell, which focuses on immuno-oncology research, NantKwest , NantHealth and several others. He is also behind The Cancer MoonShot 2020 which plans to design, initiate and finish randomized clinical trials in up to 20 tumor types in cancers of all stages in 20,000 patients by the year 2020. Soon-Shiong and his company recently came into controversy over alleged self-dealing in regards to a charity. STAT News , a division of the Boston Globe , reported that Soon-Shiong’s $12 million donation to the University of Utah was designed so that NantHealth (NH) received $10 million to conduct the research. The University of Utah indicated the work it ordered was “straightforward genetic sequencing” that would be used in preclinical research. Soon-Shiong responded to the allegations to the Los Angeles Times , saying that STAT ’s report was “maliciously false,” and the contribution to the university was made out of “a desire to make this knowledge available to scientists throughout the world.” The technology involved was GPS Cancer, Soon-Shiong’s molecular pro part of NantHealth. Soon-Shiong, who has significant financial interests in the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Times, at the Beverly Hills event, pointed to them as examples of great institutions in sports and media. “What we don’t have is a great cancer center.” That was his way of announcing his plans for a cancer clinic. Which seems like an odd introduction. STAT notes, “Los Angeles, of course, is already a hot spot for cancer treatment. It’s swarming with oncologists; Los Angeles County has approximately 600 of them, according to the physician social network Doximity.” And the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area has four National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers, which is more than anywhere except New York City. They are at University of California Los Angeles, U of C-Irvine, the University of Southern California, and City of Hope. And Cedars-Sinai Hospital is also a top cancer center. Soon-Shiong also told the Los Angeles Business Journal he expects to take three of his privately-held biotech companies public by 2018 under the name NantBio . The three companies are NantBioscience , NantOmics , and NantCell .

February 23, 2016 By Alex Keown , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff PHOENIX – Patrick Soon-Shiong , who has invested millions in a network of pharmaceutical companies, is continuing to focus investment efforts in the Phoenix area to bolster cancer research as well as expand real estate holdings in the area for Pharmaceutical research and development, the Phoenix Business Journal reported this morning. Last week Soon-Shiong’s MoonShot 2020 formed the Pediatrics Consortium , which is focused on bringing the “promise of combined immunotherapy as the next-generation standard of cancer care” to children diagnosed with the disease. Soon-Shiong is snapping up real estate in the Phoenix Biomedical Campus to support his initiatives in that area, the Journal reported. Soon-Shiong told the Journal that the Phoenix area has a plethora of talent who can support the MoonShot 2020 project, among others. Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks, LLC , which is focused on developing immunotherapies for cancer, already has a presence in the Phoenix area and is working with Arizona State University to expand the biomedical campus. Soon-Shiong, who was dubbed the world’s richest doctor by Forbes, has a long history of backing cancer therapy development. In May Culver City, Calif.-based NantBioscience, Inc. , a division of NantWorks , Soon-Shiong’s umbrella company, reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had received another $100 million into funding from NantWorks. Additionally in May, NantWorks acquired cancer treatment Cynviloq after buying a subsidiary of Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. for more than $1.3 billion. NantKwest , a division of NantWorks, is developing “the natural killer cell” as a first-line defense in cancer treatment. Natural Killer (NK) cells have the “innate ability to rapidly seek and destroy abnormal cells, such as cancer or virally-infected cells, without prior exposure or activation by other support molecules,” the company said on its website . The company is moving into Phase II clinical trials to use it NK cells as a treatment for Merkel cell carcinoma. The latest mission, the MoonShot 2020 has a central mission to design, initiate and finish randomized clinical trials in up to 20 tumor types in cancers of all stages in 20,000 patients by the year 2020. MoonShot 2020 is made up of a coalition of companies, including Celgene , Amgen and Merck KgaA . The coalition formed the National Immunotherapy Coalition (NIC) to develop and test combination therapies for various forms of cancers. The programs that will run under the NIC will focus on Phase I and Phase II clinical trials to treat various tumor types for cancers including breast, lung, prostate, ovarian, brain, head and neck, multiple myeloma, sarcoma and pancreatic cancer. The NIC has hopes of enrolling 20,000 patients by 2020. “The era of immunotherapy has taken the oncology world by storm. For the first time in 40 years, there is a glimmer that we may be able to win this war against cancer,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement. In addition to NantWorks, Soon-Shiong is also the former founder of Abraxis and American Pharmaceutical Partners , which he sold for a combined $9.1 billion. He also invented the drug Abraxane, for use against pancreatic cancer.

December 1, 2015 By Mark Terry , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff NantCell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NantWorks, LLC . NantWorks was founded by Patrick Soon-Shiong , inventor of the first human nanoparticle chemotherapeutic agent, Abraxane. NantWorks is the umbrella company for a number of companies, including NantHealth , NantMobile , NantMedia , NantOmics , NantBioscience , NantCell , NantPharma , NantCapital and NantCloud . NantWorks focuses on developing a range of technologies that will accelerate innovation, assist new research, and improvement healthcare treatments. NantCell is an immune-oncology company that is working to discover innovative antibody, T cell and NK cell-based treatments by developing molecular-targeted therapeutics based on the patient’s tumor proteome profile, separate from the cancer’s anatomical type. The company hopes to develop a pipeline of human antibodies and protein inhibitors that drive tumor growth. It also hopes to identify Chimeric Receptor Antigen platforms in both T and NK cells. The particular focus is to assist in clinical trials. The company has said, “its missions is to make obsolete the standard method of clinical trial design of ‘trial and error’ and replace it with a level of quantitative predictability based on both the genomic and proteomic pro a priori. The company will tap into comprehensive ‘omic’ analytic tools and ‘big data’ generated from supercomputing to develop molecularly designed drugs in this era of genomics and proteomics and identify patients and their tumor signature at the most granular cellular, DNA and protein levels.” Company Leadership Patrick Soon-Shiong —founder and chief executive officer. Soon-Shiong is the creator of Abraxane and the founder of the nab technology platform used to develop humanized antibodies and inhibitors of tumor proteins. An entrepreneur, former surgeon and professor at University of California at Los Angeles , Soon-Shiong founded APP Pharmaceuticals in 1997, which he sold to Fresenius SE for $3.7 billion in July 2008. He then founded Abraxis BioScience , manufacturer of Abraxane, the drug he invented. Abraxane (paclitaxel) is an injectable formula used to treat breast cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer, as well as a variety of other cancer types. In 2010, Soon-Shiong sold Abraxis to Celgene in a deal valued at over $3 billion. He has since gone on to form a number of companies under the NantWorks umbrella. NantWorks has a stated mission “to converge ultra-low power semiconductor technology, supercomputing, high performance, secured advanced networks and augmented intelligence to transform how we work, play, and live.” Charles Kim — NantCell ’s general counsel. Company Financing Soon-Shiong is notoriously close-mouthed about the companies he runs. What is known about NantCell is that in September it raised $100 million in equity funding from unnamed investors. This followed a $75 million round in June, quite possibly from the same undisclosed investor. It is possible, although completely unconfirmed, that the investor is Soon-Shiong. Pipeline In January, the company acquired AMG 479 (ganitumab) from Amgen . AMG 479 is a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets Type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R), a potential target for cancer therapy. The drug was previously investigated by Amgen for pancreatic testing, but was halted in 2012 after early results showed little. In a statement at the time of the acquisition, Soon-Shiong said, “It is our belief that the future of cancer care will involve combination therapy with low dose, metronomic use of multiple chemotherapeutic agents, but combined also with immuno-oncology molecules, or with engineered killer cells targeted at the proteomic pro the specific tumor, regardless of the anatomical type.” Market Competition It’s generally hard to get a grip on exactly what NantCell and Soon-Shiong is doing, although it appears to fit into the hot area of immuno-oncology. The company also appears to be focused on utilizing big data and proteomics to identify broad cancer markers. Competitors include Juno Therapeutics and CytomX Therapeutics . Bristol-Myers Squibb is currently marketing Opdivo, a checkpoint inhibitor of PD-1, and Merck markets Keytruda, also a checkpoint inhibitor of PD-1. Bristol-Myers Squibb also offers Yervoy, a checkpoint inhibitor of CTLA-4. Dollars and Deals When NantCell launched in January 2015, it simultaneously announced it had entered into an agreement with Amgen (AMGN) for AMG 479 (ganitumab), which was previously in Phase III development. Under that deal, NantCell acquired the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the compound worldwide, excluding Japan. AMG 479 is a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets Type 1 IGF-1R, a potential target for cancer therapy. In March 2015, the company traded about $110 million in cash and equity for the rights to unspecified immunotherapies from Sorrento Therapeutics . Although details are far and few between, there was apparently $90 million upfront and the deal could hit $1.3 billion if regulatory and sales milestones are met. Part of the deal involved the acquisition of an Abraxane-like chemotherapy drug, Igdrasol . Sorrento originally had plans to drug with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by 2016. Developed by South Korea-based Samyang Biopharmaceuticals for metastatic breast cancer, the drug has been studied in Phase III trials in the U.S. for pancreatic, ovarian and bladder cancers. In June 2015, NantCell announced that VBC Holdings, LLC , one of the NantWorks subsidiaries, acquired Italian company VivaBioCell SpA . “With the acquisition of VivaBioCell , we have added novel and complementary cell culture capabilities and extended our geographic footprint,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement. “For nearly a decade, the team at VivaBioCell has been focused on discovering and developing therapies that utilize stem cell and tissue engineering and cell culture capabilities, and enables next generation low cost manufacturing systems in the era of cell-based immunotherapy.” What to Look For Not much is known about the company’s approach, but if Soon-Shiong’s history and finances are any indication, the company has deep pockets and an innovative approach with at least two potential products to investigate that have been pretty thoroughly tested for safety. Check out the full list of the top 20 life science startups: NextGen Bio “Class of 2016.” View the top 30 life science startups in 2015: NextGen Bio “Class of 2015.”