AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo have partnered with Summit Therapeutics to explore the potential of their co-developed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan), alongside Summit’s in-licensed candidate, ivonescimab.
Through this collaboration, AstraZeneca and Daiichi will sponsor a range of trials evaluating the effectiveness of Datroway and the PD-1 × VEGF-targeting bispecific antibody, ivonescimab, in several tumour types such as lung and breast cancers.
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To kick off these efforts, the pair will first initiate a Phase III study of Datroway and ivonescimab, which will explore the combination’s potential in frontline triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This development comes a little after Datroway became the first TROP2-directed ADC to receive approval in frontline metastatic TNBC for patients who are ineligible for treatment with either a PD1 or PD-L1-targeting immunotherapy.
According to the deal, Daiichi and Summit will contribute to paying trial costs, and each company will continue to hold the development and commercial rights to their respective medicines.
AstraZeneca and Daiichi signed this deal with Summit just days after AstraZeneca invested $2bn into Summit through an equity investment—providing the UK-Swedish pharma giant with an estimated 12% stake in the company, as well as a partnership to develop a claudin-18.2 (CLDN18.2)-targeting ADC, sonesitatug vedotin, in combination with ivonescimab.
The pair take a ballooning interest in ivonescimab as the drug continues to demonstrate its promise in clinical trials, with positive readouts in NSCLC and biliary tract cancer potentially paving the way for the drug’s expansion into a new indication. The drug has so far only made its debut on the Chinese market, where it is approved to treat a certain subset of patients with NSCLC. Ivonescimab is also under US regulatory review within this indication, with an expected PDUFA date of 14 November.
Summit originally secured the development and commercialisation rights to ivonescimab in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan in 2022 through a deal with Chinese biopharma company Akeso for up to $5bn.
Now, Summit and Akeso are developing ivonescimab for several solid tumour types in combination with other drugs. According to Summit’s website, the biotech is currently exploring ivonescimab’s potential in various forms of biliary tract, breast, colorectal, head and neck, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, as well as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer.
According to a consensus forecast from GlobalData, the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology, the drug will be well on its way to achieving mega-blockbuster status in 2032, generating more than $9bn in sales during the year.
