Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
He Sees Himself As A Medical Philanthropist, But This Billionaire's Business Practices Raise Red Flags
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the California health care billionaire, believes the United States is fighting a flawed war on cancer, 鈥渟tuck in dogma.鈥 His bracing critique caught the attention of Joe Biden and, more recently, Donald Trump, who met privately with Soon-Shiong twice during the transition, as he reportedly angled for a role in the administration. (Tahir, 4/9)
In other news on the doctor聽鈥
When Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong invested in the troubled media company Tronc, he聽was greeted as a white knight. But a lawyer for Tronc is now accusing Soon-Shiong聽of making an 鈥渋mplicit threat鈥 that he would abandon the company unless Tronc invested in his own medical diagnostics startup, NantHealth. Soon-Shiong helped rescue Tronc from a hostile takeover attempt last May with an investment of more than $70 million. But he first tried to convince聽the publishing company to invest in the initial public offering聽of NantHealth, according to a letter from Tronc鈥檚 attorneys聽filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Garde, 4/3)