AstraZeneca to invest $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics for cancer drug tie-up
Summit said AstraZeneca will buy preferred shares at an equivalent $18.36 a share and the transaction is expected to close by week-end.
Sept 28 (Reuters) — Summit Therapeutics said on Monday that British drugmaker AstraZeneca would invest $2 billion in the company and collaborate on a series of studies testing their cancer treatments together. Summit's shares rose over 15% in extended trading following the announcement. 48. The investment marks a major vote of confidence in ivonescimab, a next-generation cancer treatment licensed by Summit from China's Akeso.
Ivonescimab works by simultaneously blocking PD-1, which helps cancer evade the immune system, and VEGF, which tumors use to grow blood vessels, helping the immune system better find and attack cancer cells. As part of the partnership, the two companies will also launch clinical trials combining ivonescimab with AstraZeneca's cancer treatments. They have also signed a preliminary agreement to explore testing ivonescimab with several other AstraZeneca medicines, including its antibody-drug conjugates, a class of treatments that deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to tumor cells. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the week.
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