Physician entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is planning an initial public offering later this year for the company, Nant, which is developing a cancer vaccine.
Soon-Shiong is the controversial CEO and founder of the already publicly traded precision medicine company NantHealth. The billionaire has become the focus of reporting that has highlighted possible conflicts of interest at his research organization, questionable spending at his foundation and ulterior motives surrounding his cancer vaccine. Soon-Shiong has fiercely denied those claims, telling Modern Healthcare in an interview last year that he ignores critics.
Nant spokesman Henry "C.J." Jackson confirmed the planned IPO on Tuesday but declined to provide additional information.
Nant is described in a news release as a technology and biotechnology company dedicated to addressing global diseases, environmental threats and providing a forum for policy change. The company says it plans to "establish the nation's largest whole genome machine learning artificial intelligent platform interrogating the cancer genome," among other ambitious projects.
Nant announced June 3 it had received the OK from the Food and Drug Administration to launch clinical trials into its investigational cancer vaccine. The company plans to enroll 16 subjects previously treated for cancer in a phase 1 clinical trial that will seek to evaluate the drug's safety, optimal dose, effectiveness and survival rate.
Soon-Shiong,who began his medical career at UCLA and is attempting to buy the Los Angeles Times, said last year that Nant's cancer vaccine will be tested to treat a range of cancers, including lung, breast and colon.
Soon-Shiong founded NantHealth in 2007, but the company has been sued for allegedly violated federal securities laws and misleading investors ahead of its IPO. The company laid off about one-third of its employees last year after reporting a net loss of $70 million in the second quarter. That followed $184 million in losses in 2016.
NantHealth and Nant are affiliated with Culver City, Calif.-based NantWorks, an umbrella company affiliated with a number of companies, including NantKwest, NantOmics and NantCell.
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