One of our wealthiest Angelenos, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has been wielding that influence throughout the rest of California this month.
The biomedical magnate, who made much of his fortune through cancer drug development, last week was part of a $50 million investment round into Prolific Machines, a biotech firm in Emeryville. Soon-Shiong’s Nant Capital – part of his wider business umbrella, NantWorks – co-led the round alongside growth-stage fund Atoms & Bits Capital based in Miami.
Prolific Machines works primarily in optogenetics – the combination of genetic engineering and how light interacts with cells – to develop its novel biologics, biosimilars and viral vector platforms. According to the funding announcement, some of this funding will also advance the firm’s work toward organ and tissue fabrication.
Soon-Shiong’s investment landed him a seat on Prolific Machines’ board, growing his influence in California’s biotech environment.
“Prolific Machines is the most exciting advancement I have seen in biopharma manufacturing in decades,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement, adding that Prolific Machines’ team has “built the control system that has long been missing from making medicines in living cells. I look forward to NantWorks, its affiliate companies and Prolific working together on multiple fronts.”
This investment follows a $75 million round for San Francisco-based Multiply Labs earlier this month, which NantWorks itself led. That company uses physical artificial intelligence to automate medicinal manufacturing processes.
“The world of physical AI biological manufacturing has arrived,” Soon-Shiong said of that investment. “Manufacturing cell therapies is extraordinarily complex – every step must meet (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards when executing the intricate processes of cell manufacturing. Multiply Labs is building robots with the potential to change the speed and scale of these therapies for patients worldwide.”
Capping off a good month, the Food and Drug Administration granted another expanded use authorization for Anktiva, the bladder cancer therapy developed by Soon-Shiong’s ImmunityBio in Culver City.
