Yahoo Finance 'Unless we vaccinate the entire planet, we won't get rid of this pandemic:' Vaccine developer
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, billionaire scientist and founder of the NantWorks (NH) network of health companies, is working on a universal booster COVID-19 vaccine which could play a role in lower income countries and also serve as a universal booster.
"Unless we vaccinate the entire planet, we won't get rid of this pandemic because you'll have ongoing, smoldering mutations, especially in the undeveloped world, where people are immunosuppressed with HIV and TB," said Soon-Shiong, executive chairman and founder of ImmunityBio (IBRX).
The oral vaccine candidate is not the only one on the market, and not the only vaccine candidate using an adenovirus vector— Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) vaccine uses a similar technology— but strong results in pre-clinical trials is giving ImmunityBio a path forward.
The adenovirus platform was not something new for the company, which had been exploring it for infectious diseases prior to the pandemic, Soon-Shiong said, noting it is a growing area of interest for the biotech space as a result of the pandemic.
The company recently merged with NantKwest, but instead of leading with the Nant name that is Soon-Shiong's legacy, they will together be called ImmunityBio.
"We now have a company that, I believe, has the broadest platform," Soon-Shiong said, noting it now as more than 40 early- and late-stage clinical trials under way.
Soon-Shiong said he empathizes with patients on the high cost of health care and believes the sector should be scaling up new therapies at a lower cost.
"You can't have a million-dollar CAR T-cell program going and bankrupt(ing) the family from that," he said.
Comfortable in failure
Dr. Soon-Shiong is a controversial scientist and doctor who first rose to fame in 2016 with a promise to organize and manage cancer care by 2020 in the same way chronic care for diabetes and asthma patients is currently handled.
That dream was not realized by last year, but the founder of several life sciences companies, who also owns the L.A. Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, remains bullish on his ability to innovate in health care, saying that he's "happy to be controversial."
Some of the controversy includes how his companies have handled deals - including a donation to the University of Utah that benefitted his company and a battle over a drug acquisition from Sorrento (SRNE). Soon-Shiong has maintained no wrongdoing in either case.
Soon-Shiong made his fortune from developing a drug that he eventually sold to Celgene (BMY), as well as building and selling a pharmaceutical company to Fresenius (FMS). He said that today's surge investments in biotech is a result of technology catching up with concepts hatched a decade ago.
"I think 'controversial' is the word when people don't understand what we're trying to do, and more importantly, when you're trying to make change," Soon-Shiong said.
Attempts to change how cancer is treated have so far fallen short, but Soon-Shiong says he is "comfortable in his skin" and believes his ideas will eventually have an impact.
"It doesn't mean that everything we take is going to be correct, but we really need to be honest with the science," Soon-Shiong said, adding that there will always be naysayers.
"If you're doing something important, there will be a naysayer, that really nobody cares about, nobody will care about it anyway," he said.
More from Anjalee:
Novavax CEO: If FDA waits for US data, 'the lag will be a couple of months' for its vaccine
China, Russia playing 'greater-than-expected' roles in global pandemic response
Biden COVID-19 adviser: Vaccine news is great, but we still have a ways to go
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