Questions Arise Over the World's Richest Doctor's 'Breakthrough' Cancer Therapy Promo Videos

Questions Arise Over the World's Richest Doctor's 'Breakthrough' Cancer Therapy Promo Videos March 28, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

LOS ANGELES – Did the world’s richest doctor violate federal regulations by promoting an experimental cancer therapy involving “natural killer” cells?

Over the past few days Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire doctor and investor dubbed the world’s richest doctor, tweeted videos of a “breakthrough” in cancer research that helps kill cancer cells. Part of the video included a patient statement claiming she had been cured of cancer–a statement that led to scrutiny of the video. The research in question is being conducted by his company NantKwest and is still ongoing. The problem is that federal regulations bar the promotion of drugs that have yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Stat News reported on Monday. After questions arose, Stat said an edited version of the video was shared via social media that deleted the patient statement as well as the NantKwest logo. The edits also removed references to NantKwest’s therapy, NK-92, Stat reported. Another edit also changed the wording of “breakthrough” to what Stat called more modest language of “the promise of immunotherapy.”

Stat’s latest report continues its in-depth look at Soon-Shiong and his MoonShot 2020, promise, which is focused on bringing the “promise of combined immunotherapy as the next-generation standard of cancer care”

A spokesperson for Soon-Shiong said the video was not intended to be promotional and that the edits removed “confusing lines” because Soon-Shiong’s NantKwest did not sponsor the trials the patient who made the “cured” statement had participated in. The trial did include NK-92, Stat said. However, during that small, early-stage trial, patients were also on a regimen of chemotherapy and a steroid. Stat said efficacy data from that trial had fallen short of anything that could be considered a “breakthrough.”

Not only were questions raised about whether or not Soon-Shiong violated FDA regulations, there were also questions raised about the ethical use of language that included “breakthrough” and claims that the experimental drug could “kill cancer.” Stat said the use of natural killer cells, such as the ones used by NantKwest, have not lived up to that kind of language in testing. Stat said early results of natural killer cell therapies “have been less than encouraging.”

Over the past few months Stat has scrutinized Soon-Shiong’s work. Earlier this month, the publication characterized a charitable donation provided by his company to the University of Utah was self-dealing in order to benefit one of his companies. According to the report, Soon-Shiong’s $12 million donation to the university was written so NantHealth could receive $10 million in order to conduct the research, as well as “reams of patient data” that allowed the company to inflate numbers provided to investors regarding its GPS Cancer product. GPS Cancer is Soon-Shiong’s molecular profile analysis, which integrates whole genome sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing and quantitative proteomics through mass spectrometry.

In a statement to the L.A. Times, a publication in which Soon-Shiong holds significant investments, he called Stat’s claims “maliciously false.”

Since Stat focused on Soon-Shiong’s cancer research and his moonshot promise, shares of NantKwest have plunged more than 30 percent. Shares are trading this morning at $3.66.

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