AstraZeneca has agreed to invest $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics and collaborate on cancer trials combining the companies’ experimental medicines, according to an AstraZeneca release.
The companies plan to test AstraZeneca’s sonesitatug vedotin, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CLDN18.2, with Summit’s ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody targeting PD-1 and VEGF. They intend to begin combination trials in gastrointestinal cancers.
Under the clinical collaboration, each company will supply its own medicine and share trial costs. Each will retain development and commercial rights to its respective drug. The companies have also signed a memorandum of understanding concerning a broader global development program that would combine ivonescimab with other AstraZeneca cancer medicines, including additional antibody-drug conjugates.
AstraZeneca said it will buy about 109,000 newly issued preferred shares in Summit. The shares are convertible into common stock at a ratio of 1 to 1,000. After the investment closes, AstraZeneca would hold rights equivalent to approximately 12% of Summit’s outstanding common stock, or 10.6% on a fully diluted basis. Closing is expected within one week; a later conversion to common stock would require customary regulatory clearances.
Sonesitatug vedotin is under study in gastrointestinal cancers. Ivonescimab is approved for certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer in China, while a U.S. application for its use in EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer is under FDA review. The planned combination trials will assess the drugs together; the release did not report results for that pairing.
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