Could Summit Therapeutics Become the Next Merck?
Many pharmaceutical and biotech companies have one or a few main areas of expertise in which they develop and market their most important medicines. For Merck (NYSE: MRK), one of the most prominent companies in the business, that area is oncology. Merck is best known for its cancer drug Keytruda, which has been the best-selling medicine in the world since last year. It has several other cancer drugs in its portfolio although their sales pale compared to Keytruda's.
However, one company wants to challenge Merck's crown jewel: Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SMMT). This California-based biotech is developing a cancer medicine that has produced excellent clinical trial results in one area where Keytruda is the leader. Summit Therapeutics still has no products on the market, but could it follow in the footsteps of its much larger peer?
They say a company's management team is one of the most critical factors in its success, or lack thereof. We have at least some evidence that Summit Therapeutics' top brass is quite savvy. Last year, the company entered into a licensing agreement with Akeso Biopharma, a drugmaker based in China. The deal involved Akeso's ivonescimab. While Akeso would retain the rights to market this cancer medicine in China, Summit Therapeutics obtained commercialization rights in most other places worldwide, including the U.S., the most lucrative market for pharmaceutical companies.
Source Fool.com
