He completed his internship at the Johannesburg General Hospital and acquired his Master of Science Degree from the University of British Columbia. He also happens to be the first resident to collect multiple research awards from a host of premiere institutions like the American College of Surgeons, Royal College of Physicians, Surgeons of Canada and the American Association of Academic Surgery.
He then immigrated to the USA for his surgical training at the University of California, Los Angeles. He became a member of the Medical School faculty at the UCLA as an assistant professor at a young age of 31. In 1991, he left UCLA to come with VivoRx, a diabetes research firm.
He founded the American Pharmaceutical Partners in 1997 and owns around 80% of the shares. His fortune is an estimated $5.2 billion. He is currently the founder, chairman and CEO of Abraxis BioScience, a bio-technology company that is working towards the development of effective cancer treatment. This nanotech drug is believed to be extremely potent with fewer side-effects.
Soon-Shiong holds a degree in Medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and a Master of Science from the University of British Columbia. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Soon-Shiong performed the world’s first encapsulated islet transplant in a diabetic patient. He developed the first FDA approved protein nanoparticle delivery technology for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and this drug is being developed for lung, melanoma, gastric and pancreatic cancer. He is a co-inventor of over 50 issued U.S. patents, has published more than 100 scientific papers, and founder of 2 publicly traded pharmaceutical companies, American Pharma Partners and Abraxis Bioscience.
Dr. Soon-Shiong’s research has been recognized by national and international awards such as the Association for Academic Surgery Award for Research, the American College of Surgeons Schering Scholar, the Royal College Physicians and Surgeons Research Award, the Peter Kiewit Distinguished Membership in Medicine Award, and the International J.W. Hyatt Award for Service to Mankind. Dr. Soon-Shiong received the 2006 Gilda Club Award for the advancement of cancer medicine and is a recipient of a 2007 Ellis Island Medal of Honor as well as the St. Mary Medical Center Life Achievement Award in 2007 and the St. John’s Health Center Caritas Award in 2007.
In 2008 he received the Medical Visionary Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network for his work in pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Soon-Shiong currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Transplantation as well as the Technology Council for the new Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Northwestern University which is part of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) five-year initiative for nanotechnology in cancer research. He also serves on two advisory boards for the RAND Corporation, the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy and the RAND Health Board of Advisors. Dr. Soon-Shiong recently joined the Board of Trustees for the Saint John’s Health Center in Los Angeles, California and the Advisory Board of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. He also recently joined the Advisory Board for the Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) at UCLA School of Engineering & Applied Science, as well as the Board of Councilors of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
In 2009 he was appointed to the President’s Council at RAND Corporation, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Life Sciences of the X-Prize Foundation and Founding Board member to Dossia Foundation.
