AstraZeneca Bets $2 Billion on Ivonescimab as Novo and Merck Strike Major China Drug Deals

AstraZeneca is investing $2 billion in the development of ivonescimab, while Novo Nordisk and Merck have also signed deals worth billions of dollars for Chinese drug candidates.

According to Fierce Pharma on the 2nd (local time), AstraZeneca will invest $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics to fund development of Akeso’s PD-1xVEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab.

Through the investment, AstraZeneca will acquire a 12% stake in Summit and the right to combine ivonescimab with its CLDN18.2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) sonesitatug vedotin.

Immediately after the announcement, the company also disclosed additional plans to combine datroway, a TROP2 ADC co-developed with Daiichi Sankyo, with ivonescimab across several cancer types, including lung and breast cancer.

Novo Nordisk acquired Hengrui Pharma’s preclinical GLP-1/GIP dual-receptor agonist for an upfront payment of $300 million. The total deal value could reach $2.6 billion.

Hengrui designed the candidate for once-weekly oral administration and has received approval to initiate clinical trials in China. However, the deal does not include rights in China.

Merck agreed to pay an upfront fee of $400 million to license a KRAS G12D(ON) inhibitor from China’s SciBrunch. Merck said the deal could be worth up to $2.13 billion across “multiple indications.”

Merck is conducting a phase 3 trial of its KRAS G12C(OFF) candidate calderasib.

Meanwhile, Merck and Daiichi Sankyo withdrew their application for ifinatamab deruxtecan, a B7-H3-targeted ADC. The move followed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s determination that there were insufficient data to support accelerated approval for advanced small cell lung cancer that had been treated previously.

The European Commission revoked approval of Hansoh Pharma’s EGFR inhibitor aumseka. The action followed AstraZeneca’s lawsuit in the General Court of the European Union.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) determined that Hansoh had improperly used clinical data for AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso that remained under a period of protection when Hansoh submitted its application.

Beam Therapeutics filed a lawsuit alleging that a former employee stole trade secrets and founded Chinese startup YolTech Therapeutics. YolTech licensed a competing base-editing therapy and established Serapava Bio.