Summit Therapeutics shares jump on AstraZeneca $2 billion cancer therapies investment

Sept. 29 (Reuters) — Summit Therapeutics' shares were up 23% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company said AstraZeneca will invest $2 billion in it to test cancer treatments together. 6% to a two-month high after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker announced the agreement late on Monday. Evercore ISI analyst Cory Kasimov called the investment a validating buy-in from a global leader in cancer treatments and said it gives Summit a much-needed cash infusion while keeping strategic options open.

The companies will begin testing AstraZeneca's experimental cancer treatment sonesitatug vedotin together with Summit's ivonescimab for certain gastrointestinal cancers. Under the agreement, each company will keep development and commercial rights to its own molecule. Summit's ivonescimab works by blocking two proteins at once: PD-1, which helps cancer evade the immune system, and VEGF, which tumors use to grow blood vessels. S.

peers Bristol and Merck. "We had seen a Gordon said the VEGF bispecific deal was made more likely after AstraZeneca discontinued its volrustomig bispecific last month, which he said left the company’s solid tumour pipeline looking thinner. The companies also plan to sign an agreement to run clinical trials combining ivonescimab with AstraZeneca’s multiple cancer medicines. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Eric Schmidt said AstraZeneca’s capital and clinical capabilities would allow Summit Therapeutics to move faster and capture a larger share of the market, adding that the deal also makes strategic sense for AstraZeneca.