A California biotech claims that the controversial billionaire biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, orchestrated a "catch and kill" scheme to stop development of an experimental cancer drug that may have saved the U.S. healthcare system more than $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Five notes:
1. Sorrento Therapeutics filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Dr. Soon-Shiong April 3.
2. Sorrento sold the cancer drug Cynviloq to Dr. Soon-Shiong's pharmaceutical company NatPharma in 2015. Under the deal, Sorrento received more than $90 million in cash up front and could earn up to $1.3 billion if the drug hit regulatory and sales milestones.
3. The lawsuit claims Dr. Soon-Shiong promised Sorrento that Cynviloq would be approved and launched in the U.S., but he stopped development of it because it would hurt sales of Abraxane, a rival drug invented by Dr. Soon-Shiong sold by Celgene.
4. Dr. Shoon-Shiong sold Abraxine to Celgene in 2010 for $2.9 billion. Last year, the drug had $1 billion in sales, according to the report.
5. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of controversies related to Dr. Soon-Shiong. In 2017, pop star Cher claimed she was tricked into selling her shares of a biotech, Altor BioScience, to Dr. Shoon-Shiong at a fraction of what they were worth. In another instance, Dr. Soon-Shiong gifted $12 million to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, but the contract was reportedly written in a way that directed most of the donated money back to his company.
Read the full report here.