Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, left, has become a champion of Patrick Soon-Shiong, a former UCLA surgeon who went on to make his fortune investing in biotechnology and developing anti-cancer drugs. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / October 27, 2009)
|
October 29, 2009 - A story in the Los Angeles Times details a $100 million offer by Patrick Soon-Shiong to guarantee funding for the reopening by 2012 of Martin Luther King-Jr. Harbor Hospital (MLK) near Watts in Los Angeles. Soon-Shiong is Chairman and CEO of Abraxis Health and a member of the CNSI Advisory Board.
The donation underwrites operating costs for the re-opened 120-bed nonprofit hospital which will be a collaboration between the County of Los Angeles and the University of California. Soon-Shiong hopes to include the revamped MLK in his proposed national network for electronic medical records. "This could be the county hospital of the future," said Soon-Shiong, 57, a former UCLA surgeon.
County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the former hospital, played a key role in the negotiations between the University of California and Soon-Shiong. Ridley-Thomas has endorsed Soon-Shiong as a guarantor of the hospital. A video of the press conference announcing the $100 million guaranty for MLK hospital has been posted to Ridley-Thomas's website.
|
