AstraZeneca CEO says Summit drug could drive next generation of cancer combinations after $2 billion investment
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told CNBC on Monday that Summit Therapeutics' lead drug could help power next-generation cancer treatment combinations that could be the "future of cancer care."
Soriot's comments in an exclusive interview with CNBC come a week after the pharmaceutical giant announced a $2 billion equity investment and clinical collaboration with the biotech company to test potential cancer drug combinations.
At the heart of that investment is Summit's ivonescimab, which is a first-in-class bispecific antibody that works by attacking cancer through two pathways simultaneously: PD-1, which acts like a brake on immune cells, and VEGF, a signal that helps tumors grow new blood vessels.
Blocking both unleashes the body's immune system to attack cancer cells and cuts off the blood supply that tumors need to grow.
Soriot called that medication the "next generation" after an initial wave of drugs that only target PD-1, such as Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda. Ivonescimab made waves globally after head-to-head clinical trials showed it outperformed Keytruda – the reigning standard of care and one of the highest-grossing drugs in history – in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Soriot particularly sees an opportunity to combine Summit's drug with AstraZeneca's portfolio of targeted cancer treatments called antibody-drug conjugates.
Summit's drug "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," he said.
AstraZeneca's investment equates to a roughly 12% stake in Summit, and it's not an outright acquisition or licensing agreement. That means Summit retains full permission and commercial rights to ivonescimab, which has sparked massive interest and a multi-billion dollar gold rush into drugs that work the same way.
AstraZeneca's new R&D site
Soriot spoke with CNBC from the site of AstraZeneca's new more than $1 billion research and development facility in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The company on Monday announced the opening of the 570,000 square-foot site, where scientists will develop next-generation treatments across obesity, breast cancer, COPD and rare diseases, among other areas. AstraZeneca said those new products will help the company grow beyond 2030.
The center will use robotics, continuous automation and agentic AI to aid the drug discovery and development process, the drugmaker added.
"It's faster, lower cost of research and development, more products that are delivered to better products that are delivered to patients," Soriot said. "We are on the race against disease, and there's a lot of unmet needs out there."
He said about 20% of the investment in the site is going toward robotics and AI.
"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," Soriot said.