AstraZeneca invests £1.5bn into US firm Summit for cancer drug tie-up

Drug giant AstraZeneca has invested two billion US dollars (£1.5 billion) in US pharmaceutical firm Summit Therapeutics as part of a cancer treatment research joint venture.

London-listed Astra’s equity investment will help speed up development of Summit’s experimental drug, called ivonescimab, which aims to attack cancer cells and stop them growing by targeting specific proteins.

The firms will collaborate on the new medicine as well as researching how it could be combined with Astra’s treatments, in particular its sonesitatug vedotin (Sone-Ve) drug, with trials in gastrointestinal cancer to begin imminently.

Summit’s shares soared by nearly a fifth after markets closed overnight in New York, while Astra’s shares were 2% higher on Tuesday morning in London.

The firms have formed a tie-up that will see each company contribute their respective medicine for the planned combination trials and jointly contribute to trial costs.

Each group will retain development and commercial rights to their respective medicines under the agreement, they said.

Susan Galbraith, an executive vice president at AstraZeneca, said: “This opportunity to combine ivonescimab with AstraZeneca’s antibody drug conjugates portfolio, including with Sone-Ve, could enable new regimens that raise the bar for patients with cancer across the treatment landscape.”

Dr Maky Zanganeh, president and co-chief executive of Summit Therapeutics, said: “The developments announced today with AstraZeneca open an exciting new chapter in the advancement of ivonescimab.”