TERRE HAUTE — NantWorks founder Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-born, Chinese-American physician, surgeon, scientist and inventor who has pioneered treatments for diabetes and cancer.

He has developed and sold two multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies, American Pharmaceutical Partners and Abraxis Bioscience.

California-based NantWorks LLC, announced plans on Tuesday to locate a new pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Vigo County, creating up to 234 new jobs by 2016. The new manufacturing plant, which is expected to be operational in 2015, will produce critical care injectable and oncological drugs.

Soon-Shiong was founder, chairman and CEO of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company developing cancer treatment. He is co-developer of the metastatic breast cancer treatment drug Abraxane.

In Forbes.com, it was reported last fall that he was the only physician on the Forbes 400 list to have made billions in biotechnology.

His net worth was estimated at $7 billion, which he made by selling the two drug companies within the past three years, according to the Forbes online article.

He is one of only three biotech billionaire entrepreneurs in the U.S., the Forbes article stated.

The article says Soon-Shiong has now turned his focus to the U.S. health care system. His plan calls for establishing a national health information network that connects scientists around the country working on breakthrough medical research with doctors and their patients.

A Nov. 9 ESPN.go.com article states that the Los Angeles physician, businessman and philanthropist “has made his fortune by playing a primary role in cutting-edge treatments for a wide variety of cancers.”

The article said he was born and raised in South Africa to Chinese immigrant parents, who fled from China during World War II. He graduated from high school when he was 16 and received his medical degree at age 23 before moving to Los Angeles.

Soon-Shiong joined the faculty of UCLA Medical School in 1983. He left UCLA in 1991 to start VivoRx, a diabetes research firm, according to Wikipedia.

He founded American Pharmaceutical Partners in 1997. On July 7, 2008, it was reported that Soon-Shiong, who owned more than 80 percent of that company, agreed to sell his stake to Fresenius SE.

In 2010, Soon-Shiong sold Abraxis BioScience to Celgene in a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal.

He founded the National Coalition for Health Integration to create a national health information network for secure sharing of biomedical information. He also is supporting the development of various wireless technologies for better management of chronic disease.

Soon-Shiong acquired a 4.5-percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010, buying the shares of Earvin “Magic” Johnson.