Is Summit Therapeutics a Millionaire Maker?

Multiple paths to immense wealth exist. A few lucky people win the lottery. Some start successful businesses. Others invest in stocks that deliver explosive gains.

Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT) is one of those stocks that have been quite explosive: The share price of the clinical-stage drugmaker has skyrocketed by nearly 390% over the last 12 months. But is Summit Therapeutics a millionaire-maker?

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Behind Summit's surge

We can explain Summit Therapeutics' remarkable stock performance with just one word: ivonescimab. That's the cancer drug Summit licensed from Chinese drugmaker Akeso (OTC: AKES.F) in 2022.

Ivonescimab works in two ways. It blocks the PD-1 proteins that some cancer cells use to hide from the body's immune system. The drug also blocks vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels that enable tumors to grow.

Summit's share price took off last year after Akeso reported spectacular results from a late-stage clinical trial that evaluated ivonescimab as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug outperformed Merck's Keytruda (the world's top-selling drug in 2024) in the head-to-head study.

Those great results prompted Summit to (wisely) expand its licensing agreement with Akeso. Originally, Summit had commercialization rights to the drug in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe. The revised deal added Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa to the regions in which Summit can market ivonescimab.

Big news on the way

In May 2024, Akeso won regulatory approval in China for ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy as a second-line treatment for NSCLC. However, the drug hasn't won approval in any of the markets in which Summit owns commercialization rights -- at least not yet.

Summit is conducting its own late-stage global clinical study of ivonescimab as a second-line treatment for NSCLC. The company expects to announce top-line results from this study in mid-2025. Positive data could pave the way for Summit to file for U.S. regulatory approval.

Moreover, the second-line NSCLC indication could be only the beginning. Summit is evaluating ivonescimab in two other late-stage clinical studies as a first-line treatment for NSCLC, one in combination with chemotherapy and the other as a monotherapy.

PD-1, PD-L1, and VEGF inhibitors have been approved for over 50 indications in addition to NSCLC. Summit CEO Maky Zanganeh said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that "ivonescimab will continue to be rapidly tested and developed beyond non-small cell lung cancer."

Could Summit Therapeutics make you a millionaire?

Does all of this mean that investing in Summit Therapeutics could make you a millionaire? It's a definite "maybe." Any stock holds the potential to make you $1 million, depending on the amount initially invested and the length of time you own it. I think Summit could require less up-front money invested and less time to be a huge winner than most stocks, though.

The estimated total addressable market size for the NSCLC indication tops $20 billion. The total market for checkpoint inhibitors (which include PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors) is over $90 billion. Summit's management believes that ivonescimab's opportunity "goes beyond checkpoint inhibitors." I suspect that view is correct.

Granted, there's no guarantee that ivonescimab will be as successful as Summit hopes. The clinical results reported so far, though, are definitely encouraging.

Summit Therapeutics' market cap currently stands at over $14 billion. That's a lofty level for a company with no product sales and no profits. However, if ivonescimab can deliver on its potential, Summit should be worth a whole lot more in the future.

Will that be enough for the stock to be a millionaire-maker? Again, it depends on how much money you invest and how long you hold the stock. But I predict some investors will become millionaires from their investments in Summit Therapeutics.

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Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Merck and Summit Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.