AstraZeneca
NEWS
With companies including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Revolution Medicines clamoring to get in on Summit Therapeutics’ Akeso-partnered PD-1xVEGF antibody, one analyst calls the asset “the next major backbone” of cancer treatment.
“You don’t spend one and a half billion dollars without creating jobs,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said as the pharma announced a new cost savings program alongside third quarter earnings.
When used alongside AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi, the bispecific T cell engager Imdelltra extended survival by eight months versus Imfinzi alone in Phase 3 study testing the combo in a first-line maintenance setting—a potentially “practice-changing” outcome, according to Truist Securities.
At the European Society of Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid this weekend, analysts will be watching for detailed data on Merck and Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine, Summit and Akeso’s PD-1xVEGF bispecific therapy, and a host of antibody-drug conjugates.
AstraZeneca will tap AI-focused insitro to find new targets for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and cardiomyopathies, following the Phase 3 failure of its Ionis-partnered Wainua in transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy.
Of the 38 companies receiving incentives, 31 will expand outside of Boston and Cambridge. Still, Boston and Cambridge are each expected to gain over 200 jobs. Tax incentive award recipients include AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb and Insulet.
Summit Therapeutics scores a $2 billion equity investment from AstraZeneca to support ivonescimab’s late-stage development; uniQure crashes after four-year data from its Huntington’s disease gene therapy failed to impress; Kyverna Therapeutics brings new light to a struggling CAR T space in autoimmune disease.
The all-stock deal gives Summit Therapeutics enough money to see through Phase 3 trials for the PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab—but keeps the asset fully in-house without giving up licensing rights.
SERENA-4 was assessing AstraZeneca’s Etcamah as a first-line option for certain patients with advanced breast cancer—a setting that could have meant a $2.9 billion opportunity for the drug.
JOBS
IN THE PRESS