South African-born billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has seen his year-to-date wealth loss exceed $1.1 billion, as shares of his flagship biopharma business ImmunityBio continue to fall amid prolonged selling pressures on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Soon-Shiong, a South African-American transplant surgeon, bio-scientist, and biopharma billionaire, is best known for developing the cancer treatment, Abraxane.
Aside from his role in the creation of Abraxane, Soon-Shiong has started and grown a number of pharmaceutical firms, notably APP Pharmaceuticals and Abraxis BioScience, which he sold in 2008 and 2010, respectively, for $4.6 billion and $2.9 billion.
Despite still having a war chest of $6.48 billion, the biopharma billionaire derives a total of $1.6 billion from his 76-percent stake in ImmunityBio, a late-stage immunotherapy firm that creates cell and immunological treatments for cancer and infectious disorders.
According to information compiled by Billionaires.Africa, Soon-Shiong’s net worth has decreased by a total of $1.1 billion, or 11 percent this year, falling from $9.95 billion at the beginning of the year to $8.85 billion at the time this piece was being written.
His net worth dropped by $157 million on Friday alone, primarily due to a 5.9-percent decline in ImmunityBio stock on the Nasdaq stock exchange as investors continued to liquidate their holdings in the firm in an effort to protect their capital.
Due to the challenges in its environment, particularly with its late wager on the production of the COVID-19 vaccine, ImmunityBio’s share price has dropped by more than 32 percent since the start of 2022.
Soon-Shiong remains one of the richest businessmen in the world despite the $1.1-billion decline in his net worth since the beginning of the year.
The South African-American transplant surgeon is currently the 201st wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, falling behind Singaporean banking billionaire Wee Cho Yaw.
