03:46 PM EDT, 05/30/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Summit Therapeutics ( SMMT ) shares soared 137% in recent trading Thursday after the company shared results of ivonescimab meeting primary endpoint of progression-free survival to treat a type of lung cancer, beating Merck's ( MRK ) pembrolizumab.

Results from the phase 3 trial showed that ivonescimab was statistically better at improving progression-free survival of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have positive PD-L1 expression, Summit said.

The study was conducted in China and the company plans to release the full data set later this year.

"There are no known phase III clinical trials in NSCLC which have shown a statistically significant improvement compared to pembrolizumab in a head-to-head setting," Summit said in a statement.

Pembrolizumab is sold under the Keytruda brand name.

Merck did not immediately reply to MT Newswires' request for comments.

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