Biotech mogul combines drugs and IT to attack cancer

The biotech landscape is covered with startup efforts with cancer drugs, but when Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announces one, the business world stops and listens. The inventor of the blockbuster anti-cancer hopeful Abraxane has revealed plans for a new company that marries diagnostics and supercomputing with personalized drug development. As Bloomberg reported, Soon-Shiong has already amassed a fortune of more than $7 billion from the sale of two previous pharma groups--Abraxis ($ABII) and APP--showing no signs of letting up as he pursues new interests such as his stake in the NBA's LA Lakers, entertainment and, as before, biotech/healthcare. Like in sports and entertainment, he told the news service, cancer care is undergoing a convergence involving multiple technologies. And he aims to improve cancer treatment with a network model for sharing data on tumor genes and concocting the right combos of cancer drugs for specific patients to beat their disease. Article