L.A. billionare cashes out on firm

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong gets another big payday with the sale of Abraxis BioScience Inc., the L.A. biotech firm he founded, to drug giant Celgene Corp. in a $2.9 billion deal. Abraxis sells Abraxane, a form of chemotherapy that's used for the treatment of breast cancer. It's also being studied in a number of other solid tumors, including lung and pancreatic cancers. Celgene had been exploring the treatment of solid tumors, but this deal indicates a more aggressive move into that direction. From LABJ:

The deal is second big payday in the last three years for Soon-Shiong, who controls about 80 percent of Abraxis shares through direct and trust holdings. The South African-born researcher and former UCLA surgeon received $3.7 billion from his share of the 2008 sale of generic drug maker APP Pharmaceuticals Inc., which he also founded. He has topped the Business Journal's list of Wealthiest Angelenos for the past two years, with an estimated net worth of $7.1 billion as of May.

From Dow Jones:

Although it was approved in 2005, revenue from [Abraxane] has been relatively flat in recent years, coming in at $314.5 million last year, $335.6 million in 2008 and $324.7 million in 2007. Celgene is clearly looking ahead to the future opportunities for Abraxane, as demonstrated by projecting the deal to add $1 billion in revenue by 2015. Furthermore, the company highlighted that the drug shouldn't face generic competition until at least 2023, something that is attractive for high-priced cancer treatments.