Summit Therapeutics Stock Surges After AstraZeneca Reveals $2 Billion Investment

AstraZeneca is making an investment in a cancer drug developer. (Anthony Devlin / Getty Images)

Key Points

• AstraZeneca announced a $2 billion investment in cancer-drug developer Summit Therapeutics and a collaboration on experimental cancer treatments.
• The companies will collaborate on clinical trials combining Summit’s ivonescimab with AstraZeneca’s sonesitatug vedotin.
• The FDA is scheduled to decide by Nov. 14 whether to approve ivonescimab, in combination with chemotherapy, for a form of lung cancer.

Summit Therapeutics stock jumped about 15% in after-hours trading Monday after pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced a $2 billion investment in the cancer-drug developer, alongside an agreement to collaborate on experimental cancer treatments.

AstraZeneca will purchase convertible preferred shares at a price equivalent to $18.36 a Summit common share, representing a 10% premium to the stock’s volume-weighted average price over five trading days last week. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this week.

The companies will also collaborate on clinical trials combining Summit’s flagship cancer drug, ivonescimab, with AstraZeneca’s experimental treatment sonesitatug vedotin, initially targeting gastrointestinal cancers. Both companies will share trial costs while retaining commercial rights to their respective drugs.

Ivonescimab was originally developed by China’s Akeso, which licensed the drug to Summit under an agreement valued at up to $5 billion. The drug is already approved in China, and Summit holds development and commercialization rights across major markets including the U.S. and Europe.

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The Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to decide by Nov. 14 whether to approve ivonescimab, in combination with chemotherapy, for a form of lung cancer. The deal would give AstraZeneca exposure to a promising cancer treatment without acquiring Summit outright.

AstraZeneca’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 1% in after-hours trading following the announcement.

Write to Evie Liu at evie.liu@barrons.com

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