Cancer Biopharma's overseas partner, Summit Therapeutics, announced that AstraZeneca plans to invest $2 billion in Summit. According to Reuters, AstraZeneca will subscribe to Summit's preferred shares at $18.36 per ordinary share, representing an 18.6% premium over Summit's closing price of $15.48 on Monday. The transaction is expected to be completed within this week, causing Summit's after-hours trading to rise over 18%.
Both parties also announced plans to initiate a series of clinical trials to advance the combination therapy of AK112 (Ivonescimab), Cancer Biopharma's first-in-class tumor immunotherapy drug, with multiple antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) from AstraZeneca.
According to Cancer Biopharma, Ivonescimab is the company's self-developed, world-first PD-1/VEGF bispecific tumor immunotherapeutic drug. It was approved in 2024 for the treatment of EGFR-mutated locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who progressed after EGFR-TKI therapy, approved in 2025 for first-line treatment of PD-L1-positive locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC, and further approved in August this year for first-line treatment of squamous NSCLC. (am)