The South African billionaire who became the richest man in Los Angeles

Patrick Soon-Shiong left apartheid-era South Africa and became a celebrated doctor, pharmaceutical kingpin, basketball team owner, newspaper mogul and the richest man in Los Angeles.

Soon-Shiong now lives in the home of Tinsel Town but was born in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha, in 1952.

His parents moved to South Africa after the Japanese invasion of China and worked as shopkeepers. His father was a herbalist.

Although he said his childhood felt normal, he admitted that it was “a strange normal” as he was not black and not white during apartheid-era South Africa.

Despite being unable to sit in the regular compartments on a bus, he grew up with black, white, Chinese and Indian friends.

He went to study medicine at the University of Witwatersrand at 16. He would go on to finish in the top four out of the 200 in his class.

However, his first working experience in South Africa as a Chinese doctor required permission from the South African government, where he was also paid 50% of the salary of his peers.

He met his wife Michele B. Chan in his second year of university at a basketball game. He states that basketball is the thing that keeps him sane to this day.

After marrying in 1977, the couple moved to Vancouver, Canada for his junior residency.

He was accelerated right into UC Davis as a chief resident and then became the youngest professor of surgery at UCLA.

At UCLA, he did the first two whole open pancreas transplants and kidney transplants at just 30.

However, due to the dangers of the procedure, he asked his chairman to rather focus on islet cell transplants.

This procedure would see the transplantation of isolated islets from a donor pancreas into another person and can be used to treat type 1 diabetes.

After a “sabbatical,” which he could afford due to Chan’s work as an actress in America, he performed the first islet cell transplant at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

Although Soon-Shiong was a celebrated doctor, he made his fortune from the pharmaceutical business.

Soon-Shiong left UCLA in 1991 to start a diabetes and cancer biotechnology firm called VivoRx Inc. He also founded American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP) Pharmaceuticals in 1997.

He would then go on to purchase injectable generic drugs maker Fujisawa in 1998, and use its revenues to develop Abraxane.

Abraxane used paclitaxel, which was already used in chemotherapy, and wrapped it in a protein that made it easier to target tumours.

The drug was extremely successful due to its efficacy against pancreatic cancer. He would then become the founder of Abraxis BioScience in 2001, which would make Abraxane.

He would sell APP in 2008 and Abraxis in 2010 for a combined $9.1 billion.

Although he is often referred to as the richest man to live in Los Angeles, his net worth has dropped dramatically over the last several years.

Forbes stated that his wealth fell from $12.2 billion in 2015 to $6.2 billion in 2024.

Other endeavours

Soon-Shiong has not forgotten his South African roots. In September 2021, he joined President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce a new venture called NantSA.

This would form part of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups, of which Soon-Shiong is the CEO.

The agreement in South Africa was made to expand the capability of vaccine development for Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2022, he opened a new vaccine manufacturing facility and campus in Cape Town, South Africa alongside Ramaphosa.

Outside of healthcare, Soon-Shiong has been a part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers since 2010.

His investment firm NantCapital also reached a deal to purchase the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune in a nearly $500 million cash deal in 2018, with the latter being sold in 2023.

His tenure as owner of the papers has been controversial, with allegations that he stopped the editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. It was the first time that the paper did not make a presidential endorsement.