Altor investors amend suit against Patrick Soon-Shiong, claim mogul paid off board members
Washington, D.C. attorneys Boyden Gray and Adam Waldman, stakeholders in Altor Biosciences, filed an amended lawsuit against NantHealth founder Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, on Wednesday night.
The new suit is an update to the June 21 lawsuit filed by Gray and Waldman, which claimed Soon-Shiong is attempting to acquire Altor through a sweetheart deal.
In the new suit, the attorneys allege that Soon-Shiong provided two Altor directors with substantial sums to attempt to buy their vote for the merger.
[Also: NantHealth founder Soon-Shiong hit with lawsuit over attempted takeover]
Further, Waldman and Gray claim that Soon-Shiong misled shareholders by providing false data from the results of NantCell’s Phase II clinical trials of a pancreatic/colorectal drug. While touting its success, the attorneys claim new data points to Soon-Shiong “actively taking steps to shut down” the program.
In an attempt to intentionally mislead minority shareholders as to the value of NantCell, the attorneys said that Soon-Shiong failed to disclose this information.
“[The complaint allegedly] shows Soon-Shiong provided the two -- absurdly termed ‘disinterested directors’ who approved the merger -- up to tens of millions of dollars of stock and benefits in both Altor and NantCell,” Waldman said. “It also shows the lengths Soon-Shiong has gone to hide both the stunning clinical successes of Altor and the clinical failures of NantCell.”
[Also: Patrick Soon-Shiong sued over capital investment in biotech firm]
“The litany of self-dealing transactions and tens of millions of shares Soon-Shiong has feasted himself and his ecosystem of companies on at our Phase 3 immuno-oncology company is also breathtaking," he continued.
The amended lawsuit is just one of numerous suits filed against Soon-Shiong and his companies. This week, a lawsuit from a Precision Biologics stockholder accused the biotech mogul and the company’s controlling board members of wrongfully diverting capital.
Other lawsuits were filed after three damning reports in the Spring -- two from Stat and one from Politico -- that called into question Soon-Shiong’s potential conflicts of interest, expenditures of his nonprofit business dealings and questionable donations.
Despite these ongoing controversies, Soon-Shiong was named to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health IT Advisory Committee by Paul Ryan. Further, Soon-Shiong recently acquired controlling stake in Verity Healthcare, a California health system
Twitter: @JessieFDavis
Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com
