By Ben Glickman


Shares of Summit Therapeutics soared on Thursday after the company reported data from a trial showing its cancer-treatment candidate outperformed the blockbuster drug Keytruda.

The stock more than tripled to $9.61 in afternoon trading following the news. Shares were halted multiple times due to volatility.

The biopharmaceutical company said that the monotherapy ivonescimab, evaluated in a Phase 3 trial to treat locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, achieved its primary endpoint of progression-free survival. The company said the treatment had a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda by Merck.

Summit said it was unaware of any similar trials in the same cancer treatment that found a statistically significant improvement compared with pembrolizumab in a head-to-head setting.


Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-30-24 1536ET