The federal government plans to give the exclusive license for a new liver cancer drug to a pharmaceutical company owned by China’s 63rd-richest man, HuffPost has learned.
The National Institutes of Health proposes to grant Salubris Biotherapeutics, Inc. exclusive worldwide rights to a portfolio of patents on antibody drugs used to treat liver cancer, according to a notice published Monday on the Federal Register.
The firm is the Maryland-based arm of Shenzhen Salubris Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., the Chinese drugmaker valued at roughly $5 billion and run by former Shenzhen mayor and billionaire Ye Chenghai, who with his family controls about 66 percent of the company.
