>>4645712 (lb)
In an extraordinary public EU feud, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and his coalition partner have thrown their support behind France’s Yellow Vest movement, while Salvini also accused President Emmanuel Macron of being against his people.
“I support honest citizens who protest against a governing president [who is] against his people,” said the Italian deputy prime minister.
However, the leader of the Northern League added that he “firmly” condemns the recent violence that has marred the protests.
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https://www.rt.com/news/448247-salvini-backs-yellow-vests-macron/
Notable
Celgene adds $30 million to investment in Soon-Shiong firm NantCell
By JAMES F. PELTZ
JAN 06, 2019 | 11:40 AM
Drugmaker Celgene Corp. agreed to invest an additional $30 million in a cancer-fighting start-up that’s majority owned by Los Angeles biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the companies said Friday.
Celgene’s second-round funding would raise its overall investment in NantCell to $105 million, lifting its ownership in the firm to 2.8% and giving NantCell a total valuation of $4 billion, the companies said.
The announcement came one day after Celgene itself agreed to be acquired by another major drug company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., for $74 billion. Celgene, based in Summit, N.J., produces drugs such as the blood-cancer therapy Revlimid.
Privately held NantCell is part of Soon-Shiong’s Culver City-based network of firms, called NantWorks, which is attempting to develop cancer treatments using the body’s own immune system.
The network’s other two main entities, which are publicly held, are NantHealth Inc. and NantKwest Inc. Soon-Shiong also owns the Los Angeles Times.
Soon-Shiong started NantCell in 2015 with the help of Celgene’s initial $75-million investment. The company is trying to develop a vaccine to combat multiple types of tumors without requiring the patient to undergo high-dose chemotherapy.
“We are very pleased with Celgene’s continued investment in the company and our shared vision of developing a chemotherapy free cancer vaccine,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement.
Mark Alles, Celgene’s chief executive, said in a statement that NantCell had made “significant clinical progress” and that “we are excited to extend this partnership.”
Celgene helped expand Soon-Shiong’s fortune in 2010 when it purchased Soon-Shiong’s Abraxis BioScience Inc. for about $3.6 billion. Abraxis’ business included the cancer drug Abraxane, which Soon-Shiong developed in the 1990s.
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-soon-shiong-celgene-20190106-story.html
Soon-Shiong owns pieces of the coast
It was a crazy week around the Los Angeles Times, with a new owner announced, the old publisher brought back and then sent off to a new assignment, and everyone around the paper trying to figure out what the future holds. Here's what I have posted already. On Sunday morning I was the guest on "KNBC News Conference" with Conan Nolan to talk about buyer Patrick Soon-Shiong and the Times. It aired at a special time due to the Olympics, 7:45 a.m., so here it is if you care to watch. I also was quoted in an AP story by writer Brian Melley: The doctor's in, but jury is out on new LA Times owner. Money quote from USC's Gabe Kahn, who has interviewed Soon-Shiong: "He’s incredibly wealthy, very smart and, as tends to be the case with billionaires, he has a big ego and he has thin skin.”
If he's prickly about being asked questions, this new Wall Street Journal story (behind the paywall) probably has his hackles up. It examines the controversy around Soon-Shiong's biotech and health businesses. The story says that NantHealth had accumulated a deficit of $671.6 million: "When medical entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the embattled Los Angeles Times from owner Tronc Inc. this week, some journalists cheered. Investors in Dr. Soon-Shiong’s health company have done anything but." Before that story ran, here was a light overview of last week's developments from The New Yorker. Also worth a note, the SEC documents filed on the deal in which Tronc sells the Times and San Diego Union-Tribune confirm that what remains of the old LA Times Washington bureau will return to Times hands and no longer be a shared part of Tronc. And Steven Miller, hired just recently to be assistant managing editor for online on Lewis D'Vorkin's team, is already off the masthead. He'll apparently join D'Vorkin and former Times publisher Ross Levinsohn in a new Tronc media enterprise separate from the Times.
The most interesting revelations (new to me anyway) on Soon-Shiong involve his property holdings in Brentwood and on the coast in Malibu and Laguna Beach. Soon-Shiong and his wife have spent about $50 million buying up homes near theirs in Brentwood to create a family compound of nearly five acres. It's been going on awhile — LAT reporter Martha Groves covered it in 2010 — but an anonymous LA real estate blog called Yolanda's Little Black Book says the buying has continued, all masked under various investment entity names. The site says Soon-Shiong's main house, with 25,000 square feet and 10 bathrooms, now sits in the middle of a big swath of Brentwood belonging to him. He also has bought property on Broad Beach, between actor Ray Romano and [ former] KTLA TV general manager Greg Nathanson, and is building his dream mansion overlooking the beach on Malibu's Encinal Bluffs. The Yolanda site says Soon-Shiong entities paid $8.7 million for the first lot and $18.5 million for the property next door. The couple also bought on the coast in Laguna Beach: "In February 2016, the couple dislocated hundreds of jaws when they reared back and airdropped $45,000,000 smackers on what is perhaps the coolest and most unique property in all of Orange County."
Says the site: "Yolanda’s calculations tell us that Mr. Soon-Shiong has spent a heart-stopping $154,245,000 on his Brentwood compound and the Malibu/Laguna Beach getaways. And that’s just the land." Considering how protective that Times editors and columnist Steve Lopez feel about the coast, I feel a conflict coming. By the way, I'm advised that the New York Times was a little off in reporting that Soon-Shiong lives next door to former Times publisher Austin Beutner. They are "a few blocks" apart.
[Added: From Groves' 2010 story in the Times, not online: Soon-Shiong bought up nearby houses through an attorney, "disguising the true owner, it did not take long for neighbors to figure out the buyer's identity." Soon-Shiong's spokesman at the time was LA crisis PR mogul Michael Sitrick, and Soon-Shiong required sellers whose property he bought in Brentwood to sign non-disclosure agreements. Some spoke anyway. ]
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2018/02/la_observed_notes_times_n.php