Shares of Summit Therapeutics (SMMT) jumped 9% Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the company is in advanced discussions with AstraZeneca (AZN) over a potential multi-billion-dollar partnership deal.
Citing sources familiar with the negotiations, Bloomberg said AstraZeneca “could pay as much as $15 billion over time to license” Summit’s lung cancer treatment, Ivonescimab. The potential deal “include[s] a several billion dollar upfront payment and several milestone payments that Summit could receive later,” according to the report.
Summit did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Investopedia. A spokesperson for AstraZeneca declined to comment.
Including Thursday’s rally, shares of Summit are now up more than 35% year-to-date. U.S.-listed shares of AstraZeneca, meanwhile, were down 2.5% during Thursday’s session but remain up roughly 6% in 2025.
While discussions are ongoing and no final agreement has been reached, Bloomberg noted “the talks could not culminate in a deal as well.” The report also revealed that Summit has held talks with other pharmaceutical companies.
Summit, based in Miami, is developing Ivonescimab, an investigational lung cancer therapy originally engineered by China-based Akeso Inc. Summit licensed the drug for development and commercialization in the U.S., Europe, and other territories in 2022.
The excitement around the drug follows the results of a global late-stage study released in May. According to Summit, the combination of Ivonescimab with platinum-doublet chemotherapy showed a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival”, or PFS, compared to chemotherapy plus placebo.
“Progression-free survival (PFS) essentially measures how long a patient lives with their disease without it getting worse.”
However, the study did not show a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS), though there was a positive trend.
“Ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy also showed a positive trend in overall survival in the primary analysis, but without achieving a statistically significant benefit,” the company noted. “Overall survival reflects the extent to which a treatment can extend a patient’s lifespan.”
Summit acknowledged that “there are no current FDA-approved regimens that have demonstrated a statistically significant overall survival benefit in this patient setting.” Despite this, the company still plans to file a Biologics License Application (BLA) with the FDA.
However, Summit cautioned that “the FDA had said that a statistically significant overall survival benefit is necessary to support marketing authorization,” which may influence the timing of the application filing.
Ivonescimab is currently not approved by any regulatory body outside of China, where it has been authorized by the National Medical Products Administration.
Investor sentiment on social media has responded accordingly, with Stocktwits showing bullish sentiment around SMMT and bearish sentiment around AZN.
SMMT stock is up roughly 35% year-to-date, while AZN has gained about 7%.
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