Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

A Pretty Penny

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the CEO of cancer research firm NantKwest, took in $147.6 million in compensation in 2015, Bloomberg reports. It adds that his net worth is estimated to be $9.8 billion.

NantKwest focuses on leveraging the human immune system, particularly natural killer cells, to treat cancer and other diseases, Bloomberg says. Stat News notes that NantKwest is comprised of a number interrelated companies, including ones drawing on patients' DNA to develop personalized treatments. Soon-Shiong also recently announced his own cancer moonshot project focusing on immunotherapies that's separate from the government initiative, it adds.

Soon-Shiong's compensation stands out from that of other executives in the field, according to Stat News, as, in 2014, the CEOs of Allergan, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Vertex all made less that $40 million. But Soon-Shiong's compensation also isn't guaranteed as much of it comes as stock — and NantKwest's stock has fallen from $35 a share after its IPO last summer to $9 a share this week, it adds.

Bloomberg also reports that a class action lawsuit was filed against NantKwest in March, alleging that the company misled its investors by not disclosing errors associated with some of Soon-Shiong's stock-based awards. The company has said in a filing that it would "vigorously defend these proceedings."

The Scan

Tara Pacific Expedition Project Team Finds High Diversity Within Coral Reef Microbiome

In papers appearing in Nature Communications and elsewhere, the team reports on findings from the two-year excursion examining coral reefs.

Study Examines Relationship Between Cellular Metabolism, DNA Damage Repair

A new study in Molecular Systems Biology finds that an antioxidant enzyme shifts from mitochondria to the nucleus as part of the DNA damage response.

Stem Cell Systems Target Metastatic Melanoma in Mouse Model

Researchers in Science Translational Medicine describe a pair of stem cell systems aimed at boosting immune responses against metastatic melanoma in the brain.

Open Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas Team Introduces Genomic Data Collection, Analytical Tools

A study in Cell Genomics outlines open-source methods being used to analyze and translate whole-genome, exome, and RNA sequence data from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas.