Gqeberha-born billionaire to put money into jabs
• US cancer drug inventor Soon-Shiong is investing about R3bn in medical research facilities
SA-born philanthropist, doctor and cancer drug inventor Patrick Soon-Shiong is investing about R3bn in SA and sharing three decades worth of oncology and immune research expertise with local research institutions to create high-level cancer and Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capabilities in SA. His company, NantWorks, is building a facility in the Western Cape to undertake vaccine manufacturing and research and develop cancer drugs that can also be given as vaccines.
SA-born philanthropist, doctor and cancer drug inventor Patrick Soon-Shiong is investing about R3bn in SA and sharing three decades worth of oncology and immune research expertise with local research institutions to create high-level cancer and Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capabilities in SA.
Soon-Shiong will partner with the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, KwaZuluNatal and Wits, the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
SA has had almost no investment in beginning-to-end vaccine manufacturing.
Soon-Shiong’s company, NantWorks, is building a facility in the Western Cape to undertake vaccine manufacturing and research and develop cancer drugs that can also be given as vaccines.
Soon-Shiong, who was born in Gqeberha and is estimated by Bloomberg to be worth $11bn (R164bn), invented Abraxane, a drug to treat pancreatic cancer that is now used to treat multiple cancers. He sold this along with a second medical company for $7.4bn.
During apartheid, SoonShiong was the first doctor of Chinese heritage to work at the whites-only Johannesburg hospital, but he was paid half his counterparts’ salary. He later became a transplant surgeon in the US.
Soon-Shiong has more than 200 technology and medicine patents. NantWorks develops cancer drugs, is involved in super-computing and artificial intelligence, and is investing in renewable energy and batteries to store solar power, and creating water from air. He has installed 500 units in the Eastern Cape that use air to produce water for households.
Soon-Shiong is developing cancer vaccine treatments by harnessing T-cells in the immune system to recognise and fight cancer and is now trying to stimulate the same parts of the immune system in secondgeneration Covid-19 vaccines.
He has been working with the SAMRC and conducting trials of vaccine boosters on Cape Town health workers to see if they can activate T-cells, a different part of the immune system, hoped to offer years of protection. Asked about red tape and bureaucracy stifling innovation, he told Business Day that he had addressed this with President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had kept his promise about removing red tape.
Preparation for the vaccine and drug manufacturing facility had moved rapidly.
Speaking at a virtual media conference last week, SoonShiong said that “there is amazing scientific talent” at SA’s universities. “If we could harness that talent, and integrate that into a global-scale manufacturing, we would have access for all of Africa for advanced health care from the base of SA.”
University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng said: “I think this is an exciting moment.
“Rather than having our scientists go elsewhere to do this hi-tech science, we’ve got the expertise. What we need is to manufacture.”
The philanthropic partnership with SA has several aspects. NantWorks Africa arm Nant Africa will work with the SAMRC and universities to create HIV, Covid-19, TB and cancer research centres.
The Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, in collaboration with the SAMRC and the universities of Stellenbosch and KwaZulu-Natal, is also launching a project to enhance SA’s rapid genomic surveillance of viruses and viral mutations occurring in Africa.
Further vaccine trials with Soon-Shiong and the SAMRC are planned in SA, including a new Covid-19 vaccine that targets the protein in the centre of the virus and aims to stop it replicating and thus spreading.
“The first-generation vaccines were needed to prevent death. The new ones are needed to prevent illness,” he told Business Day.
NantWorks will also benefit from its investment in SA. It is working with Wits University to conduct research into cervical cancer, a disease highly prevalent in SA and among HIV-positive individuals but not as common in the US. SA has long been a productive place for international medical research because of its high disease prevalence.
Prof Zeblon Vilakazi, Wits vice-chancellor and principal, said: “We look forward to this collaboration as it speaks directly to the priorities of Wits University — to improve health care using the latest technology and innovation, to benefit broader society, and to advance the public good.
“This relationship is particularly special, as both Patrick Soon-Shiong and his wife Michele [Chan] are Wits alumni, who met on our campus.”