Stealth Mode GLP-1
Billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has a peptide up his sleeve.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (“PSS”) is in the running for the world’s most interesting man. He is the 2nd wealthiest medical doctor in the world. His wife was in MacGyver.1 He owns the Los Angeles Times. He’s a part owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a mentor to Kobe Bryant. He’s listed as the inventor on more than 1200 patents.2 He’s the first surgeon to perform a whole pancreas transplant. We are all inadequate in comparison.
Most recently it has become apparent that he is a surrogate for the Make America Great Again (“MAGA”) movement, or at least wants MAGA royals to think highly of him. He’s the ultimate cockblock of the LA Times editorial board.34 It shouldn’t be surprising that the South African born man of Chinese dissent who is a proud Los Angeleno has a unique perspective, and has lot to say about a lot of things.
Recently, he participated in a public flattery session on X with his bud, Elon Musk, where Elon begins the symposium by extolling the virtues of GLP-1’s:
This all perked up my ears that lead me down a rabbit hole. The most interesting man in the world has a GLP-1 in his back pocket? In phase 3 trials? Why does he call it a GLIP-1 and not a GLP-1? Have I been calling it the wrong thing all of this time!? WTF!?
I then found a X message from over a year ago that I flagellated myself for not seeing before:
Digging into PSS history with GLP-1 led me to the year 2011. At the same time Oprah was trying to lose weight on a 21 day vegan cleanse, PSS gets into the GLP-1 (or GLIP-1?) game.5 Flush with $2.9b from his sale of blockbuster pancreatic cancer drug Abraxane in 2010, he purchased ConjuChem, a struggling Canadian biotech that was developing CJC-1134-PC, one of the first GLP-1 to be developed for weekly dosing.
The gem of ConjuChem, to PSS at the time, was their Drug Affinity Complex (DAC™) and Preformed Conjugate-Drug Affinity Complex (PC-DAC™). It wasn’t the catchy names and groundbreaking trademarked acronyms that caught his attention, it was the technology of being able to extend the half-life of drugs by binding the drug molecule to albumin, which keeps the drug active in the body for a longer duration. PSS saw the potential in a lot of drug classes where frequent doses are necessary.
For a moment let’s imagine a parallel universe where PSS brought a life changing GLP-1 to market before Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. PSS is the richest man in the world, the epidemic of obesity has been conquered, and Elon Musk is kissing PSS’ ass on X. But that’s not the world we live in. What the hell happened to CJC-1134-PC?
The molecule proceeded with three clinical trials conducted between 2011 - 2013, one of which was unceremoniously terminated due to a “business decision.”6 Maybe it wasn’t a very good drug after all?
In June 2021, Changshan Pharmaceutical announces a joint venture to develop the drug (now referred to as Ibenatide).7 In September 2021, Changshan announces a phase 3 trial.8 There haven’t been any updates since. Maybe it’s not dead, but it doesn’t really sound like something PSS should brag to Elon about.
Desperate for more clues, I watch a one hour and eighteen minute podcast on YouTube that only confirms PSS status as the most interesting man in the world. One might say I don’t have a lot going on in my life, and that person would be correct.
Then at the one hour, twelve minutes and forty nine second mark, PSS says the magic words “No one knows this, I have a GLIP One in Phase 3… I’m coming out of stealth in about two months… (insert statements about curing all of humanities biological limitations…) …my job is to make it affordable to anyone who can afford it.”
At that point, I may or may not have shit myself. PSS is going to overtake the GLP-1 market with something all fat asses can afford? Do I need to sell my Altimmune & Lilly stock?
Deflated like a nitrous balloon after a Blink 182 concert, my PSS GLP-1 trail seems to have dried up. What clues have I missed? I looked at the messages on X again, hoping to find a glimmer of hope.
Oh, wait! Praise the Lord, PSS left a few cookie crumbs for me! He has a phase 3 GLP-1 asset? It’s effective at lowering A1C at a dose of .2mg?
A bit of Googling and conversing with a very random dude on Stocktwits (thanks Water03!) led me to a little known Chinese biotech startup, PegBio. Founded in 2008, with no known connections to PSS save for a common ancestry, I see they have a drug in development called Visepegenatide and scroll through a very long article from The Lancet.9
Is it a GLP-1? Check.
Does it have a super low dose? What is 150 μg in mg? Whoa, .15 mg? Yes, that’s nothing and pretty close to 1/10 of 2mg.
Is it in Phase 3? Kinda… in China. 600 patients. No one died or complained of gastrointestinal issues. Though I think it’s illegal to complain about things like that.
Ok, I think this is it. Is it a good drug? Eh, it’s good at lowering A1C. For really fat people, they’ll “lose some weight.” Is this the world changing drug that will make PSS king?
On November 21, 2024, an article from the esteemed journal “The Bamboo Works” indicates that PegBio needs cash. It’ll IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange any day now, after raising $143m in cash over its lifetime. Needing to raise cash doesn’t seem to be consistent with PSS having an ownership stake. However, ImmunityBio diluted shareholders last week to raise $100m, so perhaps PSS is hard up on cash.
This is either it, or I need to start my search over again. One thing I do know is I’ll be saving a few Yuan to buy some PegBio if / when it goes IPO.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151034/
https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Patrick+Soon-Shiong
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/business/media/la-times-editor-quits-patrick-soon-shiong-endorsement.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/business/media/la-times-patrick-soon-shiong.html
I’m not making this up. https://people.com/celebrity/oprahs-diets-journey-to-healthy-living/
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT01514149?term=CJC-1134-PC&rank=1&tab=history
https://www.hbcsbio-heparin.com/news/introduction-to-the-new-drug-ibenatide/
https://www.hbcsbio-heparin.com/news/innovation-leads-development-csbio-net-profit-increased-by-20-13-in-the-first-half-of-the-year/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(24)00095-6/fulltext