Scientology Donor Becomes a Billionaire With Cancer Drug

Robert W. Duggan, the Church of Scientology’s biggest donor and the chief executive officer of Pharmacyclics Inc., which makes an experimental treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, has become a billionaire after the company’s shares tripled in a year.

Pharmacyclics’ medicine, called ibrutinib, inhibits an enzyme that promotes cancer growth. It helped control the malignancy in 68 percent of 116 patients who hadn’t been previously treated for the blood cancer, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a December statement.