$1.6 billion
up 14%
An Israeli native who was a urologist and researcher, Belldegrun came to Los Angeles in 1989 to build up an immunology clinical research program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He went on to co-found three biopharma companies focused on immunology treatments for cancer and other diseases. He sold his first company, Agensys, in 2007 to Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma for $537 million. Then another company he co-founded, Cougar Biotechnology, was sold to New Brunswick, New Jersey-based pharma giant Johnson & Johnson for nearly $1 billion in 2009. That same year, he founded Kite Pharma in Santa Monica, which went public in 2014 and sold in 2017 to Gilead Sciences for $11.9 billion. Belldegrun, 76, then used the proceeds from these sales to launch Bellco Capital, a private equity firm that would form the basis of an empire with one focus: building a bioscience ecosystem both nationwide and in the Los Angeles region. Belldegrun, who lives in Bel Air, has also taken a stake in biotech private equity fund Two River Group Holdings and created a bioscience-oriented venture capital fund called Vida Ventures. In the past year, two companies in Vida Ventures’ portfolio had exit events that helped boost Belldegrun’s net worth. In 2019, Belldegrun created Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture with Tishman Speyer that invests in and creates biotech research parks. In 2023, he launched Symbiotic Capital as a non-bank lender to bioscience firms. Charitable Giving: He has given nearly $100 million to help establish the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at the former Westside Pavilion.
