Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, is renowned in the medical community for his work fighting cancer and his research foundation Chan Soon-Shiong NantHealth Foundation. A recent Politico investigation found a great deal of the foundation's expenditures went toward businesses and nonprofits that Dr. Soon-Shiong controls, which raises questions about the foundation's status as a medical research organization.
Here are 10 things to know about the investigation:
1. Entities that have conducted business deals with Dr. Soon-Shiong's for-profit businesses have received a large portion of the foundation's grants.
2. Between 2010 and 2015, the Chan Soon-Shiong NantHealth Foundation had almost $59.6 million in expenditures. In 2015, nonprofits and for-profits affiliated with Dr. Soon-Shiong received more than 70 percent of these expenditures, as well as other entities that conduct business with his for-profit firms.
3. Tax specialists found six of Dr. Soon-Shiong's for-profit employees received payments from the foundation.
4. Of the $12 million Dr. Soong-Shiong-controlled entities paid to a Salt Lake City-based University of Utah program to map 1,000 state residents' genomes, the Chan Soon-Shiong NantHealth Foundation paid $3 million. University officials report Dr. Soon-Shiong's businesses wrote the grant specification, which Politico reports gave his for-profit firms a "major advantage" with a $10 million contract for gene mapping.
5. Dr. Soon-Shion said in a statement, "All of these endeavors, including my charitable endeavors, are primarily done so with the hope that my efforts and my funds will work to reduce and even prevent the deadly consequences of multiple forms of cancer, as well as other debilitating and deadly conditions or diseases."
6. Politico says this investigation and other past instances raise question about the foundation's tax status. To qualify as a medical research organization, the entity must affiliate and engage in research with a hospital.
7. The NantHealth Foundation has listed Santa Monica, Calif.-based Providence Saint John's Hospital as its primary affiliate over the years. However, a hospital spokesperson said the hospital does not have a copy of any document or record concerning research projects with the foundation.
8. In a statement, Dr. Soon-Shiong said medical research organizations do not have to conduct medical research at the hospital. Rather, the hospital needs to available as needed for research.
9. An IRS Internal Revenue manual states, "There must be a joint effort on the part of the research organization and the hospital pursuant to an understanding that the two organizations will maintain continuing close cooperation in the active conduct of medical research."
10. An organization that fails to meet medical research organization status qualifies as a private foundation. If a private organization conducts business with related for-profit entities, they could potentially violate tax laws.