The world's richest doctor wants to revolutionize cancer treatment by making it tailor-made (2024)

The world's richest doctor wants to revolutionize cancer treatment by making it tailor-made (1) The world's richest doctor wants to revolutionize cancer treatment by making it tailor-made (2)

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the oncologist known as the world's richest doctor, has spent the last decade quietly plotting a big change in the way cancer is treated.

It all came together this week. On Thursday, shares of his biotech company NantHealth began trading after its initial public offering. They ended the day up 33%, giving the company a market value of more than $2.2 billion.

Then on Friday, NantHealth's cancer test became commercially available. The test can examine more than 20,000 genes — looking at the tumor's specific genome as well as the patient's entire genome — to help doctors take a more individualized approach to cancer treatment.

Getty Images/Kevork Djansezian

The test, called the GPS (short for "genomic proteomic spectrometry") Cancer test, looks for protein biomarkers, which can give clues as to whether a person is resistant to a certain kind of cancer treatment, especially if it's the one that that patient would typically start on. NantHealth has spent the last decade building an operating system that involves supercomputing to help oncologists decide how to use the information they gather.

"It frankly puts to bed the need for all other single tests," Soon-Shiong said in an interview with Business Insider.

As use of NantHealth's cancer test picks up, Soon-Shiong said the plan is to see how things shift so that it's possible, at a reasonable cost, to make cancer treatment less of a guessing game by using much more quantitative information. Ideally, Soon-Shiong wants that to lead to personalized therapeutics that are tailored to a patient's exact cancer, making that person the "n of 1" in a trial with the intent to get the job done.

The IPO, launch of the GPS Cancer test, and other endeavors, Soon-Shiong said, are all part of a convergence as NantHealth starts to ramp up. Soon-Shiong said the company has been quietly working for 10 years to get to this point.

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Soon-Shiong, whose current net worth is $12 billion, according to Forbes, got his start as a physician and surgeon before going on to invent the blockbuster pancreatic cancer drug Abraxane.

In addition to NantHealth, he's also the CEO of immunotherapy company NantKwest, as well as eight other companies that are subsidiaries of the larger NantWorks company. Soon-Shiong is also the second-largest stakeholder in the Tribune Holdings Company (now rebranded as tronc), and he recently kicked off Cancer Moonshot 2020, a coalition of drug companies aimed at speeding up research on new cancer treatments that harness the immune system to fight the disease.

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The world's richest doctor wants to revolutionize cancer treatment by making it tailor-made (2024)

FAQs

How did Patrick Soon-Shiong make his money? ›

Soon-Shiong later founded Abraxis BioScience (maker of the drug, Abraxane), a company he sold to Celgene in 2010 in a cash-and-stock deal valued at over $3 billion. Soon-Shiong founded NantHealth in 2007 to provide fiber-optic, cloud-based data infrastructure to share healthcare information.

Who is the richest doctor in the world? ›

The 5 richest physicians of 2024
  • Thomas Frist Jr., MD, $20.2 billion, founded Hospital Corp. ...
  • Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, $5.8 billion, was a practicing physician before inventing the cancer medication Abraxane.
  • Gary Michelson, MD, $1.8 billion, is a retired orthopedic and spine surgeon who holds over 340 U.S. patents.
Jan 9, 2024

Who is the richest oncologist in the world? ›

Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD

Dr. Soon-Shiong invented the pancreatic cancer drug Abraxane. He sold his drug companies Abraxis in 2010 and American Pharmaceutical in 2008 for a combined $9.1 billion. He took his cancer drugmaker NantKwest public in 2015 and his biotech startup NantHealth public in 2016.

What is the reputation of Patrick Soon-Shiong? ›

Soon-Shiong has been repeatedly accused of financial misrepresentation, self-dealing, price gouging, and fraud. He has been sued by former investors and business partners; he has been sued by other doctors; he has been sued by his own brother, twice; he has been sued by Cher.

Who is the Dr who owns the LA Times? ›

When Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of The Los Angeles Times, hired Kevin Merida to be the newspaper's top editor nearly three years ago, he hailed the journalist as someone who would maintain the publication's high standards and journalistic integrity.

Who is the owner of ImmunityBio? ›

ImmunityBio Announces $470 Million Equity and Debt Financing From Founder, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and Nant Entities - ImmunityBio.

Which doctor is a billionaire? ›

Al Habib is the fifth-wealthiest physician on the Bloomberg index, and one of few medical doctors to rank among the world's richest people. Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon, is worth $34 billion, while Thomas Frist, co-founder of hospital network HCA Healthcare Inc., is worth $25 billion.

Which doctors become millionaires? ›

9 physicians among Forbes' richest people for 2023
  • Thomas Frist Jr., MD, and family. Net worth in 2023: $20.2 billion. ...
  • 442. Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD. ...
  • 1,164. Leonard Schleifer, MD, PhD. ...
  • 1,647 (tied): Phillip Frost, MD. ...
  • 1,647 (tie): Gary Michelson, MD. ...
  • 1,725 (tie): Keith Dunleavy, MD, and family. ...
  • 1,725 (tied). ...
  • 1,804 (tie).
Apr 10, 2023

Do doctors end up rich? ›

Still, they can expect to have an average net worth of $500,000 if they have managed their finances carefully and have begun investing. By the time physicians reach their forties, it is very possible to achieve millionaire status, with some physicians even becoming multimillionaires.

What is the rarest doctor? ›

However, medical geneticists, also known as clinical geneticists, are believed to be among the rarest types of doctors. They specialize in diagnosing and treating genetic disorders that affect a relatively small percentage of the population. In the United States, there are only about 1,200 medical geneticists.

What medical specialty has the most millionaires? ›

Plastic surgery is the specialty with the most physicians reporting a net worth exceeding $5 million, according to Medscape's "Physician Wealth & Debt Report 2023." The report, released June 9, includes responses from 10,011 physicians in more than 29 specialties from Oct. 7, 2022, to Jan.

Who is the richest doctor in USA? ›

Thomas Frist Jr., MD, the richest self-made physician billionaire in the U.S. — worth $21.1 billion — earned a "self-made" score of seven.

Why did Patrick Soon Shiong buy the LA Times? ›

His purchase saved the paper from more steep cuts as Tronc had been making plans to close The Times' Washington bureau and, according to Soon-Shiong, lay off as much as 20% of the staff.

Why did Patrick Soon-Shiong buy the LA Times? ›

His purchase saved the paper from more steep cuts as Tronc had been making plans to close The Times' Washington bureau and, according to Soon-Shiong, lay off as much as 20% of the staff.

When did Soon-Shiong buy LA Times? ›

Soon-Shiong and his family spent $500 million in June 2018 to buy The Times and the Union-Tribune from Chicago-based Tribune Publishing after a decade of turmoil and dramatic cuts to The Times.

Who is the richest doctor in South Africa? ›

The world's richest doctor, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, was born and raised in South Africa. his vision of advancing tech and science in Africa.

Who is the richest person in LA? ›

The Wealthiest Angelenos of 2021
  • Patrick Soon-Shiong — $20.4 billion.
  • Sean Parker — $16.9 billion.
  • David Geffen — $14.2 billion.
  • John Tu — $11.1 billion.
  • Edythe Broad — $9.2 billion.
  • Edward Roski Jr. — $8.7 billion.
  • Steven Udvar-Hazy — $6.8 billion.
  • Bobby Murphy — $7.9 billion.

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