AstraZeneca and Daiichi partner with Summit on cancer trials

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo have entered into a clinical trial collaboration agreement with Summit Therapeutics to evaluate the antibody drug conjugate Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan) in combination with ivonescimab. The companies plan to start testing across several tumor types, including lung and breast cancers, beginning with a phase 3 trial in first-line triple negative breast cancer.

Under the agreement, each partner will supply its respective compound for the planned combination studies. AstraZeneca or Daiichi Sankyo will sponsor the trials, while all three companies will share trial expenses. Each participant will retain full development and commercial rights to its own medicine.

Datroway is a TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate discovered by Daiichi Sankyo and jointly developed and commercialized with AstraZeneca under an alliance established in July 2020. Summit Therapeutics contributes ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody combining PD-1 blockade with anti-angiogenesis effects via VEGF inhibition in a single molecule.

Datroway at 6 mg/kg is already approved in over 30 countries for unresectable or metastatic triple negative breast cancer, and in more than 45 countries for HR-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. It also holds approvals in Brazil, Russia, Singapore and the United States for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer, forming part of a broader development pipeline spanning more than 20 clinical trials.