NantHealth Founder Patrick Soon-Shiong Calls Report on Fund Diversion 'Maliciously False'
March 8, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LOS ANGELES – Patrick Soon-Shiong is decrying a scathing report that alleged a charitable donation he provided the University of Utah was self-dealing in order to benefit one of his companies.
STAT News, a division of the Boston Globe, reported that Soon-Shiong’s $12 million donation to the university was written so that his company, NantHealth Inc. , received $10 million in order to conduct the research, as well as “reams of patient data” that allowed the company to inflate numbers provided to investors regarding its GPS Cancer product. The University of Utah said the work it ordered from NantHeatlh was “straightforward genetic sequencing” meant to be used in preclinical research. The university’s geneticist, Deborah Wood Neklason, told STAT she could not understand how NantHealth could use the University of Utah numbers as GPS Cancer orders.
STAT reported it had reached out to Soon-Shiong with a list of detailed questions, but the doctor never responded to interview requests.
However, after the report was published and shares of NantHealth plunged, Soon-Shiong broke his silence and spoke to the Los Angeles Times, a company in which he has also made significant investments.
Soon-Shiong, often dubbed the world’s richest doctors, told the Los Angeles Times that STAT’s report was “maliciously false.” Soon-Shiong said the money was provided to the University of Utah out of “a desire to make this knowledge available to scientists throughout the world,” the Times said. Soon-Shiong also said he was “befuddled” that anyone could misconstrue his intentions.
GPS Cancer is Soon-Shiong’s molecular profile analysis, which integrates whole genome sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing and quantitative proteomics through mass spectrometry. The NantHealth technology is being developed to provide oncologists with a comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer and an assessment of protein pathway function to inform personalized treatment strategies, according to company information.
Soon-Shiong said the gene-sequencing was performed on the same machines used for the GPS Cancer product. He also told the Times that the contract with the University of Utah did not require the work be performed by NantHealth, as was suggested in the STAT article. Rather, he said the school chose NantHealth because “it was the only company that met the contract’s detailed requirements,” the Times said.
A NantHealth spokesperson also told the Times that the contracts provided to the University of Utah were “fully vetted” by attorneys from NantHealth as well as the university. The contracts were also publicly disclosed in securities filings, Jen Hodson, the NantHealth spokesperson told the Times.
Shares of NantHealth remain down this morning, currently trading at $4.93, as of 9:48 a.m.