$173.5 Million Life Science Arbitration Victory

Quinn Emanuel recently won a $173.5 million arbitration award for our clients NantCell, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of ImmunityBio, Inc., and Immunotherapy NANTibody, LLC. The award was issued against Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. in a hard-fought arbitration proceeding involving complex biotechnology issues that our clients had filed against Sorrento and its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Henry Ji. The dispute involved two Exclusive License Agreements providing for delivery to our clients of antibodies and antibody materials for use in developing cancer therapies. Our clients sought damages arising from allegations of Sorrento’s fraud and breach of obligations to provide bargained-for antibodies.  The arbitrator issued a final award in the aggregate amount of $173.5 million, finding that Sorrento had breached both license agreements, of which $156.8 million is payable to NantCell and the remainder to NANTibody. In addition, the arbitrator determined our clients are entitled to declaratory relief that both license agreements remain in full force and effect with respect to ImmunityBio’s PD-L1 NK cell.