Summit Therapeutics Stock Slumps After Partner Akeso Gets FDA Nod For Cancer Drug: Retail’s Optimistic

The company’s lead candidate, ivonescimab, aimed at treating certain cancers, was discovered by Akeso and is currently in multiple late-stage clinical trials.

Summit Therapeutics stock tumbled 37% on Friday afternoon after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its partner pharmaceutical company Akeso, Inc.’s penpulimab-kcqx with cisplatin or carboplatin and gemcitabine for the treatment of certain forms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

The agency also approved penpulimab-kcqx as a single agent for adults with metastatic non-keratinizing NPC with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy and with at least one other prior line of treatment.

Penpulimab-kcqx is a differentiated PD-1 monoclonal antibody developed independently by Akeso and is the company’s first internally developed innovative biologic to receive FDA approval.

Notably, Summit Therapeutics’ lead candidate, ivonescimab, which aims to treat certain cancers, was discovered by Akeso and is currently in multiple late-stage clinical trials.

Earlier this month, Summit said that over 2,300 patients have been treated with ivonescimab in clinical studies globally. Studies of ivonescimab in China are sponsored by Akeso. Other studies are also being conducted by Summit.

Ivonescimab is an investigational therapy that is not approved by any regulatory authority in Summit’s license territories, including the United States and Europe.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around SMMT jumped marginally within the ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours while message volume remained at ‘extremely high’ levels.

SMMT stock is up by about 26% so far this year and about 554% over the past 12 months.

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