Biotech’s Soon-Shiong hiring bankers for Nant cancer drug IPO
LOS ANGELES: Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong plans to take an experimental cancer treatment company public this year and has begun hiring bankers, the biotechnology entrepreneur told Reuters.
The former surgeon said in a recent interview that the new company, to be called Nant, would use most of the money raised from the initial public offering to develop a pipeline of cancer drugs, although the amount of financing has yet to be determined.
Soon-Shiong made billions by founding and selling an injectable drugmaker, followed by a company that developed a way to make a chemotherapy drug more effective.
Later, he founded Culver City, California-based NantWorks, from which he has spun off two publicly traded companies – cancer-testing company NantHealth Inc (NH.O) and immunotherapy developer NantKwest Inc NK.N.
Shares of both have fallen sharply and losses have mounted amid questions over whether funds from his charitable foundation have been used to drive sales. Soon-Shiong called allegations of donations being tied to sales of a cancer diagnostic test “completely untrue.”
Earlier this year, he agreed to buy the Los Angeles Times and other California newspapers for US$500 million, but the deal has not yet closed.
Credit Suisse has been hired to work on the Nant IPO, and SoonShiong said he was in talks with two other investment banks. Credit Suisse declined comment.
Nant’s portfolio includes six compounds in clinical trials against nine tumor types. The pipeline includes versions of existing chemotherapy drugs designed to make tumors more recognizable to the immune system, methods of delivering cancer-fighting cells to tumors, and immunotherapies.
Soon-Shiong believes a multidrug regimen could help cancer patients achieve long-term remission.
“Everybody is focusing on one little piece of the puzzle,” he said. “But the tumor is too smart. It has too many fail safes. We need to attack the entire tumor system.”
At least two of Nant’s drugs are in late-stage trials: Ganitumab, an antibody licensed from Amgen Inc (AMGN.O), blocks a receptor linked to cell growth and is being tested in combination with chemotherapy for advanced sarcoma patients.
Another compound, N-803, targets a protein involved in activating immune system cells and is in late-stage development for bladder cancer.
Shares of NantHealth have fallen to US$3.41 from their IPO price of US$14 in 2015. The company reported a first-quarter loss of around US$22 million. — Reuters