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AstraZeneca ploughs £1.5bn into US cancer drug firm Summit Therapeutics in bid to beat Keytruda

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026 · last updated 30 September 2026.

AstraZeneca paid $18.36 per share for 109,000 Summit Therapeutics shares, a 12 per cent stake costing $2bn, to trial cancer drug ivonescimab alongside its existing medicines.
AstraZeneca paid $18.36 per share for 109,000 Summit Therapeutics shares, a 12 per cent stake costing $2bn, to trial cancer drug ivonescimab alongside its existing medicines.

AstraZeneca has acquired a 12 per cent stake in US pharma firm Summit Therapeutics for £1.5bn, partnering to develop ivonescimab, an experimental drug that in trials cut the risk of cancer progression or death by half compared to Merck's blockbuster Keytruda. The British FTSE 100 giant and Summit will jointly fund trials combining ivonescimab with AstraZeneca's own Sone-Ve drug, with gastrointestinal cancer tests due to begin imminently. The deal advances chief executive Pascal Soriot's pledge to invest $50bn in the US by 2030, by which point half of AstraZeneca's revenues are expected to come from America.

Ivonescimab works by targeting specific proteins to attack cancer cells and stop them growing, building on the class of immunotherapy drugs that generates tens of billions in annual sales.

Summit's shares soared nearly a fifth after the deal was announced, while AstraZeneca shares also rose, reflecting market confidence in the tie-up.

AstraZeneca executive Susan Galbraith said the combination with its antibody drug conjugate portfolio 'could enable new regimens that raise the bar for patients with cancer across the treatment landscape.'

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