AstraZeneca has invested two billion US dollars (£1.5 billion) in US pharmaceutical company Summit Therapeutics as part of a joint venture focused on cancer-treatment research, according to the supplied report.
The investment by London-listed AstraZeneca is intended to help accelerate the development of Summit’s experimental medicine ivonescimab. The drug is designed to target specific proteins in an effort to attack cancer cells and prevent them from growing.
Under the agreement, the companies will collaborate on ivonescimab and investigate how it could be used alongside AstraZeneca’s existing treatments. The planned research will focus in particular on combining the medicine with AstraZeneca’s sonesitatug vedotin, also known as Sone-Ve. Trials in gastrointestinal cancer are due to begin imminently, the report said.
The partnership will see both companies contribute their respective medicines to the planned combination trials. They will also jointly contribute to the costs of those trials.
Each company will retain development and commercial rights to its own medicine under the agreement, according to the companies.
Susan Galbraith, an executive vice president at AstraZeneca, said the combination of ivonescimab with AstraZeneca’s antibody-drug-conjugate portfolio, including Sone-Ve, could create new treatment regimens for patients with cancer.
“The 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,” she said.
Dr Maky Zanganeh, president and co-chief executive of Summit Therapeutics, said the agreement marked a new stage in the development of ivonescimab.
“The developments announced today with AstraZeneca open an exciting new chapter in the advancement of ivonescimab,” she said.
The announcement was followed by a sharp market reaction. Summit’s shares rose by nearly a fifth after markets closed overnight in New York, while AstraZeneca’s shares were 2% higher in London on Tuesday morning, according to the report.
The collaboration is focused on researching and developing the medicines and their potential combination. The supplied evidence does not provide results from the planned trials or establish whether the combination will prove effective in treating gastrointestinal cancer or other cancers.
