Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracking | Overnight US Stock Summit continues to soar, AKESO's value may be explored by the market (with concept stocks)

Overnight, the US stock Summit (SMMT) continued to soar, rising another 20% last night.

At the 2024 WCLC conference, Summit/AKESO released the results of the HARMONi-2 study (first-line non-small cell lung cancer patients with TPS≥1%): AK112 (envafolimab) showed significantly better PFS than Keytruda (pembrolizumab), with a PFS of 11.14 months vs 5.82 months (HR=0.51), demonstrating a crushing advantage.

It is worth noting that Keytruda is currently the top-selling drug globally. AK112 outperformed Keytruda head-to-head in clinical trials and achieved success in the fiercely competitive field of lung cancer and first-line treatment, which is significant.

In the market, following the successful head-to-head competition with Keytruda in China, Summit is brewing a "merger negotiation storm," which could happen quickly or slowly, with the potential for imminent action.

The success of AK112 in the field of lung cancer is just the first step. It continues to conquer different solid tumor indications in first-line therapy following Keytruda's footsteps. AKESO adopts a more aggressive approach (head-to-head) in some indications, which will continuously expand AK112's sales ceiling and greatly boost Summit's acquisition price.

Furthermore, as a dual-antibody drug completely "born in" China, AK112 will undoubtedly attract more attention from overseas pharmaceutical companies and institutional investors to explore and invest in the potential of Chinese original innovative drugs, further increasing the frequency of domestic innovative molecules' BD and driving the Newco model trend.

The success of AK112 has propelled Summit's market value from just over $1 billion to the current $14 billion in less than a year.

This beneficial effect undoubtedly prompts more American venture capitalists to devote more energy to exploring the potential molecules in China, directly catalyzing the outbreak of the Newco model.

Taking the PD-1/VEGF dual-antibody track as an example, following AK112's collaboration between AKESO and Summit, BioNTech introduced PM8002 from Pumis Bio with a total package of over $1 billion, and Yimengangke reached a collaboration of over $2 billion with Instil Bio, including the core pipeline of PD-L1/VEGF dual-antibody IMM2510.

For the US stock market, which values biotechnological innovation, any valuable news or movement can unlock the value of Biotech.

AKESO (09926): During the 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), the company released positive clinical results for AK112. This clinical trial involved evaluating the efficacy of envafolimab (PD-1) monotherapy compared to Keytruda monotherapy in first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with positive PD-L1 expression. The market continues to be optimistic about AKESO's leading position in China's bispecific antibodies (BsAB) and the two biologics, AK102 and AK101, which are in advanced clinical stages and may receive market approval in China by the end of 2024