On September 29, Summit Therapeutics PLC rose nearly 24% in pre-market trading. The surge was driven by the announcement that British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will invest $2 billion in convertible preferred shares in Summit, alongside a nonbinding clinical collaboration agreement centered on ivonescimab.

Under the collaboration, the two companies plan to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with a broad set of AstraZeneca's oncology portfolio, including antibody drug conjugates. Both parties will contribute their respective compounds and jointly fund the combination studies, which are intended to be sponsored by AstraZeneca. The $2 billion investment represents a significant validation of ivonescimab's commercial potential as a next-generation bispecific antibody targeting both PD-1 and VEGF.

The deal comes amid a series of positive clinical catalysts for ivonescimab. Recent data from the Phase III HARMONi-GI1 trial demonstrated statistically significant superiority in overall survival over durvalumab plus chemotherapy in advanced biliary tract cancer, while updated HARMONi-2 data showed a 27% reduction in the risk of death versus pembrolizumab, with consistent efficacy across Western and Asian patients.

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