AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told CNBC on Friday Summit Therapeutics‘ Lead drug could help next-generation cancer treatment combinations that could be “the future of cancer treatment.”
Soriot’s comments in an exclusive interview with CNBC come a week after the pharmaceutical giant announced a $2 billion equity investment and clinical collaboration with a biotech company to test a combination of potential cancer drugs.
At the heart of the investment is Summit’s ivonescimab, a first-in-class bispecific antibody that attacks cancer through two pathways simultaneously: PD-1, which acts like a brake on immune cells, and VEGF, a signal that helps tumors grow new blood vessels.
Blocking both releases the body’s immune system from attacking cancer cells and reduces the blood supply necessary for tumor growth.
Soriot calls the drug the “next generation” after the initial wave of drugs that only target PD-1, for example merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda. Ivonescimab made global waves after head-to-head clinical trials showed it outperformed Keytruda – the standard of care and one of the biggest drugs in history – in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Soriot particularly sees an opportunity to combine Summit’s drugs with AstraZeneca’s portfolio of targeted cancer treatments called drug-antibody conjugates.
Pascal Soriot, executive director of AstraZeneca Plc, speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, USA, on Friday, June 5, 2026.
Michael Ngale | Bloomberg Getty Images
The Summit drug “is particularly exciting because it can help treat some tumor types that are better treated in combination with antibody-drug conjugates, better treated than with existing first-generation PD-1 agents,” he said.
AstraZeneca’s investment is equivalent to a 12% stake in Summit, and is not an outright acquisition or license agreement. That means Summit retains full permission and commercial rights for ivonescimab, which has sparked massive interest and a multi-billion dollar gold rush into drugs that work the same way.
AstraZeneca’s new R&D site
Soriot spoke to CNBC from the site of AstraZeneca’s more than $1 billion research and development facility in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The company on Monday announced the opening of a 570,000-square-foot site, where scientists will develop next-generation treatments in obesity, breast cancer, COPD and rare diseases, among other areas. AstraZeneca says the new product will help the company grow beyond 2030.
The center will use robotics, continuous automation and agent AI to aid in the drug discovery and development process, the drugmaker added.
“It’s faster, research and development costs are lower, more products are delivered to better products that are delivered to patients,” Soriot said. “We’re racing against disease, and there’s a lot of unmet need.”
He said around 20% of the investment on the site goes into robotics and AI.
“The idea is to use AI to create new drugs faster, but also to invest in robotics to simplify and speed up the process of discovering and developing molecules during the preclinical phase in particular,” Soriot said.