Exhibit 99.1
Summit Therapeutics Raises $235 Million
Fundraise Led by Insiders & Leading Biopharma Institutional Investors in a Private Placement
$235 Million in Net Proceeds Raised at Yesterday’s Closing Price of $22.70
Miami, Florida, September 12, 2024 – Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SMMT) (“Summit,” “we,” or the “Company”) today announced that the Company accepted offers from multiple leading biotech institutional and individual investors to purchase an aggregate of approximately 10.35 million shares of the Company’s common stock at $22.70 per share, the closing price on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $235 million. The capital raise was completed without bankers’ fees.
All of Summit’s Section 16 officers participated in the capital raise. A total of $79 million was raised by insiders, including Robert W. Duggan, Dr. Maky Zanganeh, Manmeet S. Soni, and Bhaskar Anand, as well as Jeff Huber, a member of the Board of Directors, who invested via a controlled entity. The remaining $156 million was raised with multiple leading biopharma institutional investors.
Summit intends to use the net proceeds to advance, in part, the clinical development of ivonescimab, including in non-small cell lung cancer and in settings outside of lung cancer by leveraging the data that will be presented at ESMO, which may include, but is not limited to, colorectal cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer, in addition to working capital needs and general corporate purposes.
The securities described above have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Accordingly, these securities may not be offered or sold in the United States, except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Summit has agreed to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registering the resale of the shares of common stock following the closing of the securities purchase agreement.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
About Ivonescimab
Ivonescimab, known as SMT112 in Summit’s license territories, the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, including Mexico and all countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Africa, and as AK112 in China and Australia, is a novel, potential first-in-class investigational bispecific antibody combining the effects of immunotherapy via a blockade of PD-1 with the anti-angiogenesis effects associated with blocking VEGF into a single molecule. Ivonescimab displays unique cooperative binding to each of its intended targets with multifold higher affinity when in the presence of both PD-1 and VEGF.
This could differentiate ivonescimab as there is potentially higher expression (presence) of both PD-1 and VEGF in tumor tissue and the tumor microenvironment (TME) as compared to normal tissue in the body. Ivonescimab’s tetravalent structure (four binding sites) enables higher avidity (accumulated strength of multiple binding interactions) in the TME with over 18-fold increased binding affinity to PD-1 in the presence of VEGF in vitro, and over 4-times increased binding affinity to VEGF in the presence of PD-1 in vitro (Zhong, et al, SITC, 2023). This tetravalent structure, the intentional novel design of the molecule, and bringing these two targets into a single bispecific antibody with cooperative binding qualities have the potential to direct ivonescimab to the tumor tissue versus healthy tissue. The intent of this design, together with a half-life of 6 to 7 days (Zhong, et al, SITC, 2023), is to improve upon previously established efficacy thresholds, in addition to side effects and safety profiles associated with these targets.
