- AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told CNBC that Summit Therapeutics' lead drug ivonescimab can power next-generation cancer combinations that are the future of cancer care, speaking a week after AstraZeneca's $2 billion equity investment and clinical collaboration with Summit.
- The $2 billion investment equals a roughly 12% stake in Summit Therapeutics and is not an acquisition or licensing agreement, so Summit retains full permission and commercial rights to ivonescimab.
- Ivonescimab is a first-in-class bispecific antibody that attacks cancer through PD-1 and VEGF simultaneously and outperformed Merck's Keytruda in head-to-head trials in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
- AstraZeneca opened a more than $1 billion, 570,000 square-foot research and development facility in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 20% of the investment going toward robotics and AI for drug discovery.
Quotes
“in particular is very exciting because it can help address a certain number of tumor types that can be better treated in combination with antibody-drug conjugates, better treated than with existing first-generation PD-1 agents”
“The idea is to really leverage AI to invent new medicines faster, but also invest in robotics to simplify and accelerate the process of discovering and developing molecules throughout the preclinical phase in particular”
“It's faster, lower cost of research and development, more products that are delivered to better products that are delivered to patients”