Latest news with #SummitTherapeutics
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
China targets a new frontier in its bid to eclipse the West
For the world's leading cancer doctors and scientists, few events in the calendar are more prestigious than the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco). Each year, tens of thousands of top researchers gather to unveil pivotal scientific breakthroughs and new therapies that will shape the future of cancer care across the globe. The event has changed the way scientists view breast cancer, challenged views on colorectal cancer and offered novel ideas on how to help seriously ill patients. The discovery which everyone was speaking about last year was one made by a little-known biotech firm called Akeso. Its new lung cancer drug had achieved something 'unprecedented', its US partner Summit Therapeutics said on the eve of Asco. The new experimental drug 'decisively beat' Merck's blockbuster lung cancer treatment in clinical trials. The news came as a shock – not just because it challenged Merck's well-known dominance in lung cancer drugs, but because Akeso was Chinese. 'DeepSeek' moment For years, Asco's annual meeting has been dominated by American scientists. However, last year was different. It marked a watershed moment for the pharmaceutical sector, which had long written off China as a nation that excelled in drug manufacturing and 'copycat' treatments but not medicine discovery. Akeso's debut on the world stage has been described as a 'DeepSeek' moment for the industry – a reference to the sudden emergence of a highly advanced AI chatbot out of China earlier this year, which took US tech giants by surprise and wiped close to $1 trillion (£740bn) off global stock markets. Summit's shares are up more than 600pc since first announcing the lung cancer trial results. 'The two large innovators in our industry today are the US and China,' Sir Pascal Soriot, the boss of AstraZeneca, said in March. 'China is, I think over the next five to 10 years, going to emerge as really a driving force for innovation in our sector.' It sets the stage for a growing tussle between the US and China over the future of drug development. Donald Trump has been clear that he wants pharmaceutical giants to be investing more in America. Biopharmaceutical companies and their suppliers account for 4.9m jobs and are worth around $1.65 trillion to the US. However, drug companies are increasingly turning east when it comes to investing in new drugs and clinical trials. Not only is China becoming an easier place to research and create new drugs, but the Trump administration is also shaking faith in the US. Vaccine sceptic health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has prompted much anxiety in the industry. By contrast, China is 'very business friendly and stable' Novartis boss Vas Narasimhan said in May. Drugs boom Beijing has been attempting to win more pharma investment for years – and specifically attempting to boost funding for drug innovation. Drug discovery was a key pillar of the 'Healthy China 2030' strategy unveiled in 2016, aimed at helping the country cope with its ageing population. The focus has already paid dividends. Over the past three years alone, the number of Chinese drugs in development has doubled to 4,391. Almost half are either novel drugs or something known as a 'fast-follower', where treatments are quickly developed on the back of breakthroughs by rivals. According to Barclays, the number of so-called 'first-in-class' drugs under development in China rose to around 120 last year, having been in the single digits in 2015. First-in-class essentially measures the level of innovation by looking at the highest development stage a drug has reached and the earliest time it reached that stage. The growth in China is unmatched. While the US, which has long been regarded as the world leader in drug discovery, has more first-in-class drugs in development, at 151, the growth rate has been much slower. 'The shift isn't incremental, it's tectonic,' says Abhishek Jha, the founder of life sciences data company Elucidata. One crucial part of Beijing's push to drive more drug discovery has been speeding up clinical trials. In China, regulators allow businesses to get studies up and running quicker, and then update them as they progress. This can provide early data on new drugs, which is a major draw for multinational companies looking for novel treatments that show signs of working well. It has sparked a boom in studies taking place in China. According to figures from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), China accounted for around 18pc of clinical trials sponsored by companies in 2023 compared to just 5pc in 2013. Meanwhile, the US proportion has dipped from 28pc to 23pc. Clinical trial enrolment in China is surging, with around 40pc now having more than 100 participants. Bitter pill Fewer regulatory barriers are just one of a number of reasons pharma companies are turning to China. Workers, too, are less averse to working unsociable hours than they would be in Western nations. Shirley Chen, a Barclays analyst, says: 'Chinese scientists may be happier to accept very long work hours and people like hospital personnel [where trials take place] are actually okay to do night shifts.' Major drug giants are now scouring China for potential deals. The likes of GSK, AstraZeneca and Merck have all struck deals worth more than $1bn to get the rights to develop and sell Chinese drugs outside the country. The rise of China's pharmaceutical industry has started to raise alarm bells in the US. Trump may be focused on returning manufacturing jobs to the US, yet some say he should be concerned that more high-quality jobs and research posts are starting to drift to China. 'Five years ago, US pharmaceutical companies didn't license any new drugs from China,' Scott Gottlied, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, wrote earlier this month. 'By 2024, one third of their new compounds were coming from Chinese biotechnology firms.' He warned that the shift of clinical trials to Asia could undermine innovation in the US as companies choose to 'divert funds that might otherwise bolster innovation hubs such as Boston's Kendall Square or North Carolina's Research Triangle'. 'The US biotechnology industry was the world's envy, but if we're not careful, every drug could be made in China.' While Trump exempted most countries' pharmaceutical industries from tariffs in his 'liberation day' blitz, China was not spared. That means physically manufacturing drugs for the US in China is out of the question, for now at least. However, unless the US rights the ship, many of its treatments may well be designed in China in future. As pharmaceutical leaders made their way to the annual Asco meeting this week, the shifting power balance will no doubt be on attendees' minds. Industry chiefs may be congregating at a US research conference, but attention is turning to the east.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Got $100? 3 Top Growth Stocks to Buy That Could Double Your Money
Applied Digital has a huge growth opportunity with the explosion in demand for data centers. IonQ is a pioneer in the fast-growing quantum computing market. Summit Therapeutics has a promising cancer immunotherapy in late-stage development. 10 stocks we like better than Applied Digital › Everyone knows that it takes money to make money. However, you don't need much money to begin making money. Many stocks with exceptional growth prospects have relatively low share prices. Got $100? Here are three top growth stocks to buy that could double your money. Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) is small, with a market cap in the ballpark of $1.3 billion and a share price of below $6. However, the company has a huge growth opportunity with the explosion in demand for data centers and cloud infrastructure. Applied Digital designs, builds, and operates data centers that support artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. This tech stock is up almost 60% over the last 12 months. However, it's still nearly 50% below the peak set in February 2025. Applied Digital would almost double its share price if it regains its previous high. I think this goal should be attainable, if not this year, within the next couple of years. While Applied Digital is based in Dallas, Texas, it operates two custom-built HPC data centers and two blockchain data centers in North Dakota. The state is ideal for data centers because of its energy capacity, low electricity costs, and natural cooling due to its cold climate. The company also operates four digital cloud data centers in Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and Utah. However, Applied Digital's board of directors recently approved a plan to sell the cloud services business. This should raise additional money for the company to invest in meeting the soaring demand for AI and HPC applications on top of two other recent financing deals. IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) is a pioneer in quantum computing technology. Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize encryption, drug discovery, financial modeling, and more. IonQ pegs its total addressable market at $87 billion by 2035. The company's market cap currently hovers around $8.2 billion, with its share price a little over $33. But quantum computing isn't just about the future. IonQ already markets the Forte Enterprise system. It's the only quantum hardware available on all three of the largest cloud providers -- Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Alphabet's Google Cloud. There's a good reason why these cloud titans like IonQ. The company's trapped-ion architecture is faster than that of rival systems. IonQ's error correction process is more scalable and has the lowest overhead in the industry. With growing interest in quantum computing, it isn't surprising that IonQ has attracted several large partners. The list includes South Korean telecommunications leader SK Telecom, Japanese conglomerate Toyota Tsusho, U.S. defense contractor General Dynamics, and powerhouse chipmaker Nvidia. If you buy six shares of Applied Digital and one share of IonQ, you still have plenty of money left over from an initial $100 to scoop up a couple of shares of Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT). The drugmaker is the largest of these three growth stocks, with a market cap of roughly $17.2 billion. However, Summit has plenty of upside potential. The company is evaluating a promising immunotherapy, ivonescimab, in late-stage clinical studies targeting non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Summit expects to announce results from one of those studies with ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy as a second-line treatment for NSCLC in mid-2025. There's ample reason for optimism about the chances that Summit will win U.S. approval for ivonescimab. The company's partner, Akeso, has already won two approvals for the immunotherapy in China for treating NSCLC after conducting a clinical trial where ivonescimab beat Merck's blockbuster drug Keytruda in a head-to-head matchup. Summit doesn't intend to stop with the NSCLC indication. The company is also targeting other types of cancer, including cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and glioblastoma. If ivonescimab comes anywhere close to fulfilling its potential, this drug stock should more than double over the next few years. Before you buy stock in Applied Digital, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Applied Digital wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $642,582!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,879!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 975% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Merck, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Summit Therapeutics. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Got $100? 3 Top Growth Stocks to Buy That Could Double Your Money was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Summit Therapeutics Stock Double Your Money?
Ivonescimab is a promising cancer drug that has sent its shares soaring in the past year. The drug isn't approved yet, but it's involved in dozens of trials and has shown promise. The stock's high price tag could be a problem for investors looking for a big return. 10 stocks we like better than Summit Therapeutics › Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT) has more than just a potential blockbuster cancer drug in its portfolio. Ivonescimab could be one of the best drugs to ever hit the market. This has investors excited that Summit may be one of the next big healthcare companies in the world. After all, sometimes all it takes is one huge drug to change a company's long-term prospects. There's been no shortage of optimism around Summit of late, and if ivonescimab does come to market and proves to be a game changer for the business, that could transform its operations. Could this be an investment that possibly doubles your money within the next five years? The bullish case for Summit Therapeutics, and the reason the stock has been soaring in the past year, is that it's potentially sitting on a drug that could generate tens of billions in revenue. Ivonescimab performed better than one of the best cancer drugs in the world, Keytruda (which Merck owns), in a trial involving non-small cell lung cancer. It could mean a new standard of care for patients. While ivonescimab hasn't obtained approval from regulators yet, Summit and its China-based collaboration partner, Akeso, are studying the drug in over a dozen trials. Investors are more than just a little optimistic that there will be at least some approvals forthcoming for the drug, which could not only justify Summit's $21 billion market cap but may push its valuation even higher. But that high price tag could pose a problem for investors looking to earn a significant return on the stock. For Summit to double in value, its already-high market capitalization would need to soar to more than $40 billion. It's already trading at a significant value for a business that doesn't generate any consistent revenue and doesn't have an approved drug in its portfolio. While there is hope that it may soon have at least one approval, investors shouldn't assume it's a slam dunk. There are serious question marks about ivonescimab. Most of the trials involving the drug take place in China, where there may not be a diverse enough group of participants to convince the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of how safe and effective it is. There are a few global trials taking place, and that could put those fears to rest, but it remains to be seen if they will justify the optimism. With such a high market cap, it could still mean limited gains for investors who take a chance on the healthcare stock at this point. In just the past 12 months, Summit Therapeutics shares have skyrocketed more than 530%. The risk for investors is that a lot of the upside in the stock is already priced in. Approval of ivonescimab may not necessarily send it to a whole new level -- it may simply avoid a steep sell-off. When there's so much speculation involving a stock, there's a tendency for investors to buy the rumor and sell the news. At its current price, there's a lot more risk than there is upside for Summit. While I wouldn't rule out more gains for the stock, especially if ivonescimab obtains approval, I wouldn't expect it to double in value, even within the next five years. But I could see it losing significant value if there are any hiccups along the way for the drug. You may want to take a wait-and-see approach with the stock for the time being. Before you buy stock in Summit Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Summit Therapeutics wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $613,546!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $695,897!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 893% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 162% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025 David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Merck and Summit Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Can Summit Therapeutics Stock Double Your Money? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Summit Therapeutics Inc. (SMMT) Soared Last Week
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) stands against other firms that soared last week. The past trading week saw a more calm, generally optimistic, market environment amid the temporary pause in tit-for-tat tariffs, buoyed further by a flurry of corporate earnings for the first quarter of the year. On a week-on-week basis, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied the most, up 3.4 percent, followed by the Dow Jones with 3 percent, and the S&P 500 by 2.9 percent. Beyond the major indices, 10 firms stood out, booking double-digit gains as high as 48 percent, thanks to better-than-expected earnings and outlook. In this article, we name this week's 10 best-performing mid-cap companies and detail the reasons behind their gains. To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with a $2-billion market capitalization and $5-million trading volume. The stocks were chosen based on the highest percentage increase in closing prices on May 2 as against their prices a week earlier, or on April 25. A laboratory employee in a sterile environment inspecting a microscope focused on a Clostridioides difficile infection sample. Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) Summit Therapeutics grew its share price by 18.88 percent last week to end Friday at $27.9 versus the $23.47 the week prior, as investor sentiment was boosted by an investment firm's bullish outlook despite the company's disappointing earnings performance in the first quarter of the year. In its market note, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed its Overweight rating on Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) stock, thanks to its promising ivonescimab bispecific antibody, which aims to cure cancer. Just recently, Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) secured the green light from China to offer ivonescimab as a first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive NSCLC, paving the way for further expansion globally. 'We … appreciate the regulatory authorities for their efficient and diligent review, which enables us to offer this new treatment to patients in China,' the company said. In the first quarter, Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) widened its net loss by 44.6 percent to $62.9 million from $43.5 million in the same period last year, as operating expenses picked up by 57.5 percent to $66.8 million from $42.4 million year-on-year. Overall, SMMT ranks 6th on our list of firms that soared last week. While we acknowledge the potential of SMMT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SMMT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Akeso survival data for ivonescimab misses expectations, STAT says
While Akeso (AKESF) and Summit Therapeutics' (SMMT) ivonescimab, a rival to Merck's (MRK) Keytruda, won approval in China this week, the data on patient survival did not meet analyst expectations, Jonathan Wosen of STAT reports. In its submission to regulators, Akeso included data on patient survival, disclosing that an interim analysis following 157 patient deaths found that participants on ivonescimab had a roughly 22% reduced risk of death, with a hazard ratio of 0.784, a company spokesperson confirmed to STAT. That finding is not statistically significant, but it does meet market analyst expectations, according to Wosen. In an email to STAT, an Akeso spokesperson noted that the interim analysis was not powered for statistical significance and that the company plans to conduct formal analyses of survival once 232 and 280 deaths have occurred in the trial. Shares of Summit Therapeutics fell 37% to $23.21 following the report before halting for news. BioNTech (BNTX) dropped 17% to $100.06 in sympathy with Summit. Discover outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks. Filter, analyze, and streamline your search for investment opportunities using Tipranks' Stock Screener. Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See Insiders' Hot Stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on SMMT: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Summit Therapeutics sinks after STAT report on ivonescimab data Summit Therapeutics trading halted, news pending Summit Therapeutics trading resumes Summit Therapeutics trading halted, volatility trading pause Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today Sign in to access your portfolio
