SRNE Sorrento Therapeutics Inc

Item 8.01. Other Events.

On January 3, 2023, in related actions pending before the Honorable Terry Green of the Los Angeles Superior Court (the “Court”), entities ultimately controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong; specifically, NantCell, Inc. and Immunotherapy NANTibody, LLC (together, the “Nant Entities”), petitioned the Court for a temporary restraining order prohibiting Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (“Sorrento”) “from taking any steps to effectuate or implement the stockholder dividend of Scilex Holding Company stock owned by Sorrento, declared by the Sorrento Board of Directors on December 29, 2022 and publicly announced in the SEC Form 8-K release on December 30, 2022.” Sorrento opposed the Nant Entities’ request for injunctive relief and, on January 4, 2023, Judge Green denied the Nant Entities’ request in its entirety.

As Sorrento previously disclosed, also pending before Judge Green is a lawsuit that Sorrento filed in 2020 against Dr. Soon-Shiong, asserting claims for fraudulent inducement and common law fraud, and alleging that, among other things, Dr. Soon-Shiong acquired the cancer treatment drug Cynviloq™ for the purpose of halting its progression to the market. That action was stayed pending resolution of an arbitration before the American Arbitration Association against NantPharma, LLC (“NantPharma”) relating to alleged breaches of the May 14, 2015 Stock Sale and Purchase Agreement entered into between Sorrento and NantPharma to develop Cynviloq (the “Cynviloq Arbitration”). As Sorrento previously disclosed in its Current Report on Form 8-K filed on December 21, 2022, the arbitrator in the Cynviloq Arbitration ordered NantPharma, which is also ultimately owned and controlled by Dr. Soon-Shiong, to pay Sorrento $125.0 million. Now that the Cynviloq Arbitration has concluded, Sorrento intends to request that the stay in the action against Dr. Soon-Shiong be removed so that it may pursue its fraud claims against Dr. Soon-Shiong before a jury.