Summit Therapeutics reported on July 24 that it has just over $690 million in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments, which the company said is not enough to fund its planned operations for another year. In its second quarter earnings filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Summit stated, “The company’s cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments are not sufficient to fund the company’s planned operations for a period of at least one year.”
In the first half of the year, Summit posted losses exceeding $405 million while spending around $290 million on research and development. The company said it “expects to continue to generate operating losses for the foreseeable future.” As of publication, Summit has not responded to BioSpace’s request for comment.
This financial update comes as Summit awaits a regulatory verdict from the Food and Drug Administration regarding its PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab. The drug is being proposed for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have EGFR mutations and prior treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. A decision from regulators is expected on or before November 14.
Ivonescimab drew attention in September 2024 when Summit and its Chinese partner Akeso announced positive results against Merck’s Keytruda in a Phase 3 NSCLC study conducted in China. However, questions have since emerged about how well these results translate to Western patient populations. In September 2025, a combination of ivonescimab and chemotherapy showed a 22% overall survival benefit but did not reach statistical significance.
Earlier this week, Summit disclosed longer-term data showing a 24% decrease in overall risk of death among patients treated with ivonescimab plus chemotherapy compared to standard care. The company did not specify whether this result was statistically significant but noted that analysts viewed the readout positively. Stifel wrote in a July 22 note, “The risk that China data would not translate has been a lingering bear argument,” adding that new data present a “strong counter” to that argument.
Summit continues testing ivonescimab in other studies including an ongoing Phase 3 trial for first-line metastatic NSCLC; subgroup results are expected later this year while additional cohort data may arrive in early 2027.
