NantKwest CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong leaves his post

  • Push-out Score determined
  • After about six years in the position
  • Rich Adcock taking over
  • Soon-Shiong will remain as Executive Chairman at NantKwest
  • Soon-Shiong spoke at length and said 149 words

(exechange) — El Segundo, California, October 26, 2020 — Patrick Soon-Shiong, chief executive of NantKwest, leaves his position. As announced by NantKwest Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, October 26, 2020, Patrick Soon-Shiong leaves his post as chief executive officer at the clinical-stage, natural killer cell-based therapeutics company after about six years in the role, effective immediately.

Patrick Soon-Shiong’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Richard (Rich) Adcock, most recently Chief Executive Officer of Verity Health Systems.

The fact that Patrick Soon-Shiong’s successor is brought in from outside suggests that the board may seek to stimulate change with fresh ideas and new initiatives.

“Proven operational skills”

NantKwest did not give an explicit reason for Patrick Soon-Shiong’s departure from the CEO post. NantKwest said: “NantKwest … today appointed healthcare industry veteran with proven operational skills Richard Adcock as its Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Adcock brings extensive leadership experience to NantKwest as the company advances rapidly in the development of natural killer cell-based immunotherapies for cancer and serious infectious diseases.”

Soon-Shiong will remain as Executive Chairman at NantKwest

“Rich will assume the role of CEO from Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who will become Executive Chairman of the Board. Dr. Soon-Shiong remains the largest shareholder in NantKwest,” NantKwest said.

“Resignation”

NantKwest said: “On October 26, 2020, we announced the appointment of Richard Adcock as our Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s resignation as CEO and his continuation as the Company’s executive chair of our board of directors.”

Share price increase since October 2019

The announcement follows an increase in NantKwest Inc.’s share price of 640% since October 2019.

In the position of CEO since 2015

Patrick Soon-Shiong became CEO of the Company in 2015.

As Executive Chairman, Soon-Shiong will continue to play a key, active role in NantKwest’s business and in the development of the company’s long-term business strategy.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., FRCS (C), FACS was appointed Chairman of the Company’s board of directors and Chief Executive Officer in March 2015.

Soon-Shiong previously served as Co-Chairman of the Company’s board of directors from December 2014 to March 2015 and as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer from January 2015 to March 2015.

In 2011, he founded NantWorks, an ecosystem of companies to create a transformative global health information and next generation pharmaceutical development network, for the secure sharing of genetic and medical information.

Soon-Shiong, a physician, surgeon and scientist, has pioneered novel therapies for both diabetes and cancer, published over 100 scientific papers, and has over 230 issued patents on groundbreaking advancements spanning a myriad of fields.

Soon-Shiong performed the world’s first encapsulated human islet transplant, the first engineered islet cell transplant, and the first pig to man islet cell transplant in diabetic patients.

He invented and developed Abraxane, the nation’s first FDA approved protein nanoparticle albumin-bound delivery technology for the treatment of cancer.

Abraxane was approved by the FDA for metastatic breast cancer in 2005, lung cancer in 2012, and pancreatic cancer in 2013. Abraxane is now approved in many countries across the globe.

From 1997 to 2010, Soon-Shiong served as founder, Chairman, and CEO of two global pharmaceutical companies, American Pharmaceutical Partners (sold to Fresenius SE for $4.6 billion in 2008) and Abraxis BioScience (sold to Celgene Corporation for $3.8 billion in 2010).

In June 2018, Soon-Shiong became the owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times en Español and other publications under the California Times.

Soon-Shiong also serves as Chairman of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and Chairman and CEO of the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine, a nonprofit medical research organization.

He was appointed by former House Speaker Paul Ryan to the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, a committee established by the 21st Century Cures Act that advises the President and his administration on health IT policy and issues with healthcare interoperability and privacy and security, while working with key stakeholders to create standards in these areas.

He previously co-chaired the CEO Council for Health and Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center and previously served as a member of the Global Advisory Board of Bank of America.

He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at UCLA and a visiting Professor at the Imperial College of London.

The Friends of the National Library of Medicine has honored him with their Distinguished Medical Science Award.

Soon-Shiong holds a degree in medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand and a M.Sc. in science from the University of British Columbia.

Push-out Score determined

The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.

exechange reached out to NantKwest and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 44.2020 ($).