New Tribune investor Soon-Shiong knows San Diego biotech

The newest investor in Tribune Publishing, owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune, is also one of biotechnology's most prominent entrepreneurs.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, whose financial worth is estimated to be about $12 billion, made his fortune with a series of successful ventures, most notably for selling Abraxis BioScience to Celgene for $2.9 billion and APP Pharmaceuticals to Fresenius for an upfront $3.7 billion.

While Soon-Shiong is based in Los Angeles, he's well acquainted with San Diego County as a biotech hub.

One of his companies, Culver City-based NantKwest, recently announced plans to open a manufacturing facility on the Torrey Pines Mesa, the epicenter of San Diego biotechnology. The plant will produce immune cells for NantKwest's cancer immunotherapy product.

Last July, San Diego's Sorrento Therapeutics and NantBioScience, a company owned Soon-Shiong, said they have committed a total of $100 million to a joint venture to find cancer drugs.

Soon-Shiong twice visited San Diego this year to outline his vision for fighting cancer. He spoke at the Global Life Science Partnering conference of Biocom, the San Diego-based life science trade group, on his cancer "moonshot" strategy.

He also spoke at the Future of Genomic Medicine conference in La Jolla.

And Soon-Shiong is also personally familiar with San Diego's biotech elite. Ivor Royston, an oncologist and biotech investor, said he has known Soon-Shiong for more than 20 years. Royston co-founded San Diego's first biotech company, Hybritech. The two recently collaborated to apply genomic data generated by DNA sequencing giant Illumina to help a cancer patient.

For more information on Soon-Shiong and his newest investment, read the complete story at the Los Angeles Times.